Bailout Politics (Updated)
An interesting meme is developing among smart commenters from across the political spectrum that the House's failure to pass the bailout bill demonstrates the soft underbelly of our political system itself. Ezra Klein: Above all, though, this is a failure of politics. Like with global warming, with health care, with the national debt, with immigration. It is further proof that we have ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on September 29, 2008 15:45
Clean Air Causing Global Warming?
It seems that the leading man-made cause of global warming is environmentalism; specifically, efforts to improve air quality by reducing pollution, New Scientist reports. Since 1980, average air temperatures in Europe have risen 1 °C: much more than expected from greenhouse-gas warming alone. Christian Ruckstuhl of the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Switzerland and colleagues took aerosol concentrations from ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 11, 2008 16:46
Why Rush Limbaugh is So Popular
Ezra Klein believes a recent NYT Magazine profile of Rush Limbaugh is a "puff piece." He lists, for example, Rush's "presidential platform" as published: 1. Open the continental shelf to drilling. Ditto the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 2. Establish a 17 percent flat tax. 3. Privatize Social Security. 4. Give parents school vouchers to break the monopoly of public education. 5. Revoke Jimmy Carter’s ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 8, 2008 09:03
G8 and EU Growing Pains
Two articles cited in today's Small Wars Journal roundup have almost nothing to do with wars, small or otherwise, but are nonetheless interesting in showing the state of flux of some key international institutions. Steven Erlanger reports on a bold attempt to forge a "Union of the Mediterranean" which would be something of a minor league for the European Union. Perhaps the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 7, 2008 08:49
“Storm Troopers In Clown Shoes”
That's how Instapundit refers to James Hansen, apparently the most intemperate of the global warming alarmists (yes, he's worse than Gore because he's Gore's science advisor). Here's Hansen's latest proposal: James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 24, 2008 00:48
McCain Proposes Prize for Battery Breakthrough
John McCain has proposed offering a $300 million dollar prize to the developer of "breakthrough battery technology."Senator John McCain on Monday proposed the creation of a $300 million prize for anyone who developed breakthrough car-battery technology and he recommended greater tax incentives for buyers of nonpolluting autos, saying that only a combination of increased oil production, conservation measures and ingenuity ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 23, 2008 23:17
ID Creationism In Louisiana
The creationists deserve a few props here. Since the Dover loss they've switched strategies away from claiming that ID is science and are instead focusing on "academic freedom". That the concept of academic freedom doesn't generally apply at the elementary and secondary levels seems to be of no consequence. The Louisiana legislature has passed, by a veto-proof ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 19, 2008 00:58
Senate’s Death Spiral
Bob Novak writes about the depressing death spiral of the United States Senate. He uses a floor speech from Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter to illustrate the point. Specter departed from Senate self-congratulation: "The American people live under the illusion that we have a United States Senate. The facts show that the Senate is realistically dysfunctional. It is on life ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 13, 2008 07:29
Is it Worth Drilling For More Domestic Oil?
Newt Gingrich's American Solutions group has mounted an online petition designed to persuade Congress to open up domestic sites that are currently closed to oil and natural gas exploration. That's certainly an understandable sentiment, given the skyrocketing increases in the price of oil over the past couple of years. But opening up for exploration is not going to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 11, 2008 10:39
Karl Rove ‘Example How Not to Do It’
GOP strategist Ed Rollins opines, "I think the legacy is that Karl Rove will be a name that'll be used for a long, long time as an example of how not to do it." To paraphrase Bill Clinton, it all depends on what the meaning of "it" is. If we're talking of Rove as a campaign runner, it's nonsensical. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 10, 2008 13:19
