Michael Barone, writing about one of his favorite subject, Chicago politics:
The more interesting case, and a story for another day, is how Barack Obama rose despite being neither the son nor the son-in-law of somebody important in Chicago; it says something about his impressive talents that he was able to do so. But then it also didn’t hurt that his wife Michelle Robinson Obama’s father was a Democratic precinct committeeman. There are many precincts in each of the city’s 50 wards, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Mayor Richard M. Daley knows at least half of the precinct committeemen by name at any given time. Certainly his father did. And Michelle Obama, after her stint at the Sidley & Austin law firm, got a job in the current Mayor Daley’s office. He knew where she came from.
I did not know that.
Apollo posted this at 3:10 PM HKT on Saturday, December 13th, 2008 as That's Not Change!
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The levels of bad government involved in this story astound. Why does the White House insist that Congress “failed” to act? Rather, they succeeded in not acting, which is the toughest thing to do in these circumstances, and something to be lauded.
But, of course, Congress is to be blaimed for giving the administration $700 billion, no strings attached. Plainly this is not what was intended; we were all told that bailing out banks was a unique circumstance, if the banks fail we’d all fail. That can’t be true of GM.
I hope those who supported the original bailout are pleased with their handiwork. Some of us knew this was a path to unending government bailouts of anyone with a lobbyist who felt like whining. Now, money that was supposed to be used to keep credit flowing and small businesses open is instead being used to keep an oppressive labor union from bringing its practices into the 21st century, and multi-billion dollar corporations with idiotic management from harvesting what they’ve sowed. Now we’re propping them up, in an economic downturn where auto sales obviously won’t be picking up anytime soon.
This reliance on mega-corporations is very 1960s. What’s going on now is a futile and extraordinarily costly attempt to keep dinosaurs alive in an environment better suited to smaller, more versatile creatures. Why not let these three automakers flounder and a dozen pop up in their place? If there’s room in the market place for both GMC and Chevy trucks when both are owned by the same company and are identical (except for a mild variation in headlights), imagine how much better the market would be if we had a GMC and a Chevy that were competing against each other. It’s 2008 and some still think we’re dependent on three automakers and a union that’s a parody of Wagner Act stupidity? Talk about a failure of imagination.
And just as with the original dinosaurs, these guys are not savable. The only question is how much good money will we continue to throw after bad. The answer from the Bush administration, enabled by the nitwits in Congress and those who panicked back in September by supporting this chain of bailouts, is “untold trillions.” We’ve no reason to expect that the incoming administration is going to be better; indeed, we’ve every reason to believe that this impending bankruptcy was a once in a generation chance to give Detroit a chance at regaining competitiveness. Now the Bush administration has ruined it, and steered the government down the road to nationalization, a path that the next administration probably won’t object to very loudly.
This is going to take decades to unravel, if we’re lucky.
Apollo posted this at 12:22 PM HKT on Saturday, December 13th, 2008 as Bailoutistan, It's Economics - Stupid!
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Excessive studying of federal income tax law produces a feeling not dissimilar from intoxication. It strikes me as obviously immoral for Congress to subject people to such a needlessly complicated and utterly incomprehensible body of law. And I’m not just saying that because I’m stuck taking a test on that needlessly complicated and utterly incomprehensible body of law.
Apollo posted this at 2:01 AM HKT on Saturday, December 13th, 2008 as The Law Is An Ass--An Idiot
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Aside from the hilarity of the accusation itself, the fact that it’s an immigrant purporting to lecture Americans on what is and isn’t American is amusing in its own right. Is that why tens of millions of people from around the world have dreamed of coming to America: Because we bail out failing corporations? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of government handouts?
And I assume the deafening roar outside isn’t a strong Texas wind, but rather the cacophony caused all the people who have been griping for years that somehow Republicans are “questioning their patriotism” denouncing Granholm for calling these senators bad Americans.
Apollo posted this at 5:53 PM HKT on Friday, December 12th, 2008 as Bailoutistan
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K-Lo, who once seemed to be applying for the job of Mrs. Romney #2, has un-endorsed Romney:
Jim Geraghty and others have advocated the idea of Mitt Romney assuming a “car czar” role. I remain a Romney fan for many reasons; one of them: he’s a capitalist and a good one at that. If one of the Big Three called him up and asked him to get in its driver’s seat, that would be a good use of his skills. But taking the helm of some new quasi-government entity? We should bristle and so, I imagine, would he.
For once, something Romney can’t do for K-Lo. These are strange times.
Hubbard posted this at 2:03 PM HKT on Friday, December 12th, 2008 as Politics, Random Bloggish Things
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What state put the 21st Amendment, repealing prohibition, over the 2/3 threshold?
Utah, the least alcohol friendly state in the union.
P.S. Note that South Carolina was the only state to reject the 21st Amendment, which goes along with my theory that South Carolina is wrong on everything: wrong on nullification, wrong on succession, wrong on Ft. Sumter, wrong on Strom Thurmond, wrong on Lindsey Graham, and wrong on prohibition. We only need one Carolina, and plainly it isn’t this one.
Apollo posted this at 2:57 AM HKT on Friday, December 12th, 2008 as Amer-I-Can!
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It looks like Joe Barton (R-Bailoutistan) is on the “Why the hell not?” bandwagon:
“If we can give the AIG’s and the Wells Fargos and the JPMorgans of the world — each of those individual companies — between $40 and $45 billion,” then certainly the carmakers deserve a $15 billion bridge loan.
The key word there is “deserve.” I believe it was Aristotle who defined justice as “Giving each man the bailout he deserves.”
Apollo posted this at 10:01 PM HKT on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 as Bailoutistan, Philosophy
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As a suitable follow up of my last post, it’s snowing in Austin. I have a final in the morning at an unfortunate time when there’s normally bad traffic; I am not looking forward to seeing how Austinites handle driving in the snow.
Apollo posted this at 12:18 AM HKT on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 as Deep in the Heart of Texas, Grumblin Mumblins
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They’re running shows on the History Channel that wholeheartedly buy in to it. It’s now on the level of Holy Grail conspiracies and random unconfirmed “monster” sightings.
Apollo posted this at 9:54 AM HKT on Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 as Convenient Truth
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I believe I speak for all of my fellow small government conservatives when I say, go to hell Bill Kristol.
Jamie posted this at 5:31 PM HKT on Monday, December 8th, 2008 as Conservatism
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In this midst of this story about workers staging a sit-in after being fired, I unexpectedly came Jesse Jackson saying “This may be the beginning of [sic] long struggle of worker resistance finally.”
Finally? That whole thing in St. Petersburg was just a dry run?
Apollo posted this at 5:26 PM HKT on Monday, December 8th, 2008 as Commie Recrudescence
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That’s the message Amsterdam is aiming for in partially cleaning up its sex industry. I think they should run that as an advertising campaign.
Apollo posted this at 10:14 PM HKT on Saturday, December 6th, 2008 as Humor, Those Wacky Foreigners
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After NPR’s appeals for donations, Mark Steyn is a breath of fresh air:
As you know, things got a little fractious here at NRO in the run-up to the election. Levin loathes Frum, and Frum loathes Ponnuru, and Ponnuru loathes Parker, and Parker loathes Goldberg, and Goldberg loathes Derb, and Derb loathes everyone. It isn’t easy keeping a pack of weasels in an online sack 24/7 without them tearing each other’s throats out. The anger-management costs alone are enormous.
So I hope you’ll consider making a donation to NRO. Every dollar helps, particularly now that the election is over and our extreme-right-wing bitterness and hatred is turned inward on ourselves. When I see Rich Lowry, I still feel like punching his lights out for falling for that bailout scam. So he could really use the beefed-up security detail at editorial meetings.
But I’d still like to see that gangwar.
Hubbard posted this at 5:20 PM HKT on Saturday, December 6th, 2008 as Conservatism, Humor
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Jason Lee Steorts on the Corner:
Coffin seems to be taking Parker as saying that religious people should never talk about their religious commitments in political discourse. If that is what Parker meant, then I also disagree. But I think there’s a more charitable and sensible reading of her column today, which is this: Religious people should not appeal to religious claims in justifying their positions unless they are also prepared to justify their religious claims.
Tom posted this at 8:39 PM HKT on Friday, December 5th, 2008 as Uncategorized
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From the only country uncouth enough to discuss such a matter in public:
A growing group of MPs were last night calling for voluntary breath testing machines to be made available for MPs to ensure they were not intoxicated before being required to vote on important legislation.
I understand this seems to be prompted by a drunken scuffle, which should probably be discouraged within most legislative bodies, but I’m a little confused about the thought behind it. How many MPs would 1. not have the self-restraint to not get drunk before going into the chamber, and 2. have the self-restraint to voluntarily take a breathalizer and then refrain from voting based on the results? Something tells me that if you fail 1, you won’t care about 2.
The best line comes from the speaker: “I think it’s important to establish high standards that the community expects.” Yes, those high standards we all have of legislators (i.e. don’t get into drunken fights inside the chamber). It’s about time they establish those standards.
Apollo posted this at 11:05 PM HKT on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 as Excruciatingly Correct Behavior, Those Wacky Foreigners
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