The great thing about procrastinating is that, much more often than not, somebody else does it for you. Better than you can.
Better than I can, anyway.
Who Are You and What Have You Done with the Paul Krugman I Used to Know?
I would have thought it impossible for Krugman to cite Robert Reich completely approvingly, [...]
Via Brad DeLong. (Best Defense is Tom Ricks’ blog.)
CORRECTION: The other day this blog referred to right-wingers recklessly calling Obama weak for his careful handling of the Iranian crisis as “clowns.” In fact, they should have been called “dangerous clowns.” Best Defense regrets the error.
This is, um, interesting.
Dan Walters: Historic tax overhaul plan to hit Capitol
… The California Commission on the 21st Century Economy, better known as the Parsky Commission for its chairman, businessman Gerald Parsky, is on the verge of proposing a massive tax system overhaul to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators.
Although revenue-neutral – that is, not changing [...]
It’s a little hard to follow the news from Iran these days, let alone figure out what it all means. One way to do it is to follow Juan Cole’s reporting and commentary. Here’s this morning’s installment; you could do worse than subscribe to his blog.
Day of Mourning, Protests, Called by Mousavi on Thursday
[...]
Fareed Zakaria interviewed Michael Lewis on GPS last Sunday. It’s one of the better takes on the underlying dysfunction of our financial system that I’ve heard.
Fareed sits down with author Michael Lewis to discuss the economic crisis. In his best-selling book “Liar’s Poker,” Lewis chronicles his days as a bond salesman at the investment [...]
It’s time for another Joe Stiglitz post!
America’s Socialism for the Rich: Corporate Welfarism
By Joseph Stiglitz
With all the talk of “green shoots” of economic recovery, America’s banks are pushing back on efforts to regulate them. While politicians talk about their commitment to regulatory reform to prevent a recurrence of the crisis, this is one area where [...]
Well, he reads some of what Pragmatos reads, anyway.
The NY Times reports that Obama has taken notice of the Atul Gawande’s article on regional health-care-cost disparities across the US.
President Obama recently summoned aides to the Oval Office to discuss a magazine article investigating why the border town of McAllen, Tex., was the country’s [...]
Glenn Greenwald.
Hillary Clinton demands China investigate and disclose its past abuses
On behalf of the Obama administration, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a statement this week regarding the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, and demanded that China do the following (h/t sysprog):
A China that has made enormous progress economically, and that is emerging [...]
This nice quote from Milton Friedman (in the context of overhauling the Federal Reserve, as it happens) was recently quoted in the context of health care reform, specifically in support of considering single-payer systems. I’d add democratic reforms such as proportional representation to the list.
… it is worth discussing radical changes, not in the expectation [...]
Rather than, say, distinguish between civil and sacramental marriage, or between marriage and civil union, IOZ suggests that the government get out of the marriage/union business altogether. It’s an attractive idea, though it seems to me that there are some enforceable rights associated with marriage that would need to take some other form. Presumably many [...]
This is, more or less, a repeat of a comment that I left at Jonathan Turley’s post on the California Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Proposition 8 (opinion here).
Turley writes, “I have long supported doing away with the term “marriage” in favor of a uniform civil union standard for all couples regardless of gender.”
I’ve been [...]
…thinks that Sonia should pronounce “Sotomayor” in the good old American way.
This may seem like carping, but it’s not.
She can eat ethnic food and go to an ethnic church, though, he hastens to add. That’s OK with him.
OK, this can hardly be surprising. But still…
Matthew Yglesias: Public Deeply Ignorant About Cap and Trade
Via Dave Weigel, an unusually useful poll from Rasmussen Reports:
I’ve had a soft spot for Jesse Ventura since, while visiting family in Minnesota, I listened to his pre-election gubernatorial debates. This via Glenn Greenwald.
[JESSE] VENTURA: I don’t watch much TV. This year’s reading, I covered Bush’s life. I covered Guantanamo and a few other subjects. And I’m very disturbed about it. I’m bothered [...]
Here’s a fragment from a post by Richard Posner at his blog.
Is the Conservative Movement Losing Steam?
… By the end of the Clinton administration, I was content to celebrate the triumph of conservatism as I understood it, and had no desire for other than incremental changes in the economic and social structure of the [...]
Good news from Dean Baker? Twice in one post? Indeed.
Health Care and Student Loans: The Bad Guys Are on the Run
Progressives should be feeling good right now. There is clear evidence that we are winning on two really big issues.
Starting with the smaller of the two, Sallie Mae, the largest private issuer of student [...]
Makes sense to me.
Term Limits for SCOTUS Justices
Here’s a good four year-old article from Stephen Calabresi and James Lindgren making the case for abolishing life tenure for Supreme Court justices. Their mathematically sensible advice is that justices should serve for a fixed term of 18 years. This is longer than the historical average for the [...]
It has always seemed to me that Maine’s solution is the obvious one: distinguish between civil and sacramental marriage, and restrict the government’s cognizance of marriage to the civil aspect.
In case you missed them (shame on you if you did), here are a couple of fine rants from Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism. Well, fragments of them; click for the unexpurgated versions.
First rant:
Yet Another Program to Enrich Banks at Taxpayer and Borrower Expense
The chicanery never ends.
The latest bit of looting fobbed off as a [...]
Google tells me that I’ve never quoted the National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru here on Pragmatos. Until now.
Sidestepping the Issue
Based on my reading, the leading argument against prosecutions is that it would be imprudent, divisive, poisonous, etc., and therefore an abuse of prosecutorial discretion. I don’t know if that argument will or should carry the day. [...]