MORE HOME-STATE BAD PRESS FOR CHRIS DODD: Dodd’s approval numbers dive; he’s vulnerable. “There’s no announced Republican candidate yet to challenge Dodd in next year’s Senate race, but the campaign is in full swing nonetheless. And with good reason. Dodd is vulnerable, and his re-election bid is in trouble.”
LUCIAN BEBCHUK: How to Make TARP II Work. Maybe someone should send a copy to Tim Geithner. (Bumped).
ONE OF THE “Palestinian civilians” killed in Gaza.
UH OH: Japan’s GDP Shrinks 12.7%, Most Since 1974 Oil Shock. That’s actually an annualized rate for one quarter’s decline, which makes it sound scarier than it is. Yet, anyway.
MARK STEYN: Headless Body in Gutless Press. “Just asking, but are beheadings common in western New York? I used to spend a lot of time in that neck of the woods and I don’t remember decapitation as a routine form of murder. Yet the killing of Aasiya Hassan seems to have elicited a very muted response. When poor Mrs Hassan’s husband launched his TV network to counter negative stereotypes of Muslims, he had no difficulty generating column inches. … But, when Muzzammil Hassan kills his wife and ‘the face of Muslim news’ is unveiled rather more literally, detached from her corpse at his TV studios, it’s all he can do to make the local press.” Doesn’t fit the narrative.
OVER AT ABU MUQAWAMA, some reflections after reading Tom Ricks’ The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008.
UPDATE: Various readers point to this: “The guy responsible for getting us into this mess actually comes across as a leader and statesman after the electoral defeats of 2006. Against all advice, he gambles on the surge and Generals Petraeus and Odierno in early 2007. Plus, advisers to Petraeus claim Bush was curious, intelligent, and hands-on during their weekly teleconferences in 2007. What a difference between the Bush they saw and the Bush the rest of the country saw.” What could explain that, I wonder?
RAND SIMBERG visits the Holocaust Museum.
CALLING ON ROLAND BURRIS TO RESIGN: “Freshman Sen. Roland Burris released an affidavit on Saturday that contradicts his statements last month to a House committee investigating Blagojevich’s impeachment.”
FROM NACDL TO HERITAGE: Nobody likes the new Fraud Act.
WELL, IT’S BEEN PRETTY MUTUAL: Obama Embraces the MSM.
ROGER KIMBALL: “Real and tangible progress for the American people.”
REPORTS OF (POSSIBLE) SPACE DEBRIS falling in Texas.
THE FISCAL TRAP of hope.
LIVEBLOGGING THE VOTE IN CARACAS. More here.
VIDEO as a marketing tool.
MICKEY KAUS: The Welfare Issue is Alive:
A reemerging “welfare” issue is a potential killer, in other words, for Obama’s big remaining plans, especially health care. If Dems seem determined to reinstate dependency–or at the least blind to the dangers of dependency–voters aren’t going to trust them to spend trillions on universal health insurance and fortified pensions. It’s hard to believe Obama doesn’t realize this . . . Welfare is a liberal sore spot that, if Republicans play it right, could become a bleeding open wound for the administration. Voters probably thought they’d settled the dole-vs.-work issue back in 1996. Obama will be fulfilling the crude GOP stereotype of his party if he even waffles on reopening it.
Read the whole thing, especially if you work for the Administration.
INDEED: Effusive Political Adoration Does Not Lead to Social Change. At least not good social change.
SALENA ZITO: Unstimulated.
A TAXPAYER PROTEST IN SEATTLE TOMORROW? It’ll be interesting to see if this catches on.
POLITICO: 7 stimulus lessons for the Dems.
VIDEO: The God of War III extended trailer.
CONGRESS LIKELY TO RECONSIDER CARD-CHECK LEGISLATION. Too far left for Al Sharpton and George McGovern, but not for Obama, Reid and Pelosi.
IN TENNESSEE, a lot of new pro-gun legislation.
A VALENTINE: Iraqis open arms to romance as violence fades
WANT TO CONTROL THE DEBATE? Forget developing persuasive ideas and try beheadings instead! Editor Arrested in India for Publishing Essay “Outraging Muslims.”
AMISH HACKERS: “The Amish have the undeserved reputation of being luddites, of people who refuse to employ new technology.”
SEEMING SOMEHOW APPROPRIATE THESE DAYS: The Road to Serfdom in cartoons. Ironically, courtesy of General Motors. Thanks to reader Andrew Dubinsky for the link. Dubinsky comments: “Perhaps your readers can determine which chapter we are currently on.” Well, Michael Ledeen has his own view.
UPDATE: Related thoughts from Roger Kimball.
IN THE MAIL: Louis Carabini’s Inclined to Liberty: The Futile Attempt to Suppress The Human Spirit.
FROM GUN OWNERS OF AMERICA, a guide to firearms legislation in the 111th Congress.
GEEZ, EVERYBODY’S SUFFERING FROM THE RECESSION: Terrorists Quit Over Pay Dispute.
CHRIS DODD UPDATE: Publisher: No deal yet for Dodd book on financial crisis. Now a book on getting a good mortgage deal might sell . . . .
AT NEXTBIGFUTURE, a roundup of tech highlights from the first six weeks of 2009.
PHOTO CAPTION OF THE YEAR: “The couple in happier times, before Hassan removed his wife’s head.” (Via Dan Riehl).
FASTER COMPUTING with nanotechnology and plasmonics.
A LOOK AT statins and death rates in high-cholesterol people.
WELL, IT’S NOT LIKE SHE FAILED TO PAY TAXES AND THEN GOT NOMINATED TO A CABINET POSITION: Unreturned Library Book Leads to Woman’s Arrest. I mean, this is a real crime.
HEADING TOWARD a global Weimar? “Here’s the rub: The major powers think that the crisis is only fleeting, and that we’ll soon return to the old order. No one really wants to undertake the profound changes necessary to resolve it. Although the world’s public debt should be cut, now it is only being increased.” Not sure I buy his analysis, but I am sure that I hope he’s wrong . . . .
Plus, is it really true that Federal obligations exceed world GDP? I don’t think it is. I certainly hope not.
OKAY, NOW THEY’RE TAKING THE BAD ECONOMIC NEWS TOO FAR: Is sexual desire entering a recession? I would have thought that free entertainment would do better . . . . Apparently, some researchers agree with me.
CAR LUST: Remembering the Ford Pinto and Mercury Bobcat. With bonus explosion video!
MEXICO: A Western Somalia?
WHY BRITAIN should never have banned Geert Wilders.
FORBES: The Obama-Geithner Bear Market.
THE NEXT STIMULUS CHALLENGE: Spending all that money. My guess is, they’ll manage somehow.
CALIFORNIA CONGRESSWOMAN discovers get-rich-quick scheme.
NICHOLAS GUARIGLIA: Obama’s Broken Promises Were Entirely Predictable.
TRANSPARENCY: An “Off-the-Record speech” at the National Press Club? It’s a tribute to Dr. Strangelove: “You can’t do reporting here! This is the press club!”
ANTI-GUN ASTROTURF. Er, more of that, that is.
FIGHTING OVER PENSION FUNDING in New Jersey.
THE COUNTRY WORLD IS IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: “Group of Seven finance chiefs vowed to tackle a ‘severe’ economic downturn that will persist for most of 2009 without spelling out new steps to do so. . . . The authorities are still at a loss on the best course of action 18 months after the credit crisis broke out. That’s left them pursuing a disjointed approach as the global economy deteriorates further and companies from Microsoft Corp. to Nissan Motor Co. cut jobs.”
YOU CAN JUST SAY “I FORGOT!” “Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s brother solicited U.S. Sen. Roland Burris for up to $10,000 in campaign cash before Blagojevich named Burris to the coveted post — something Burris initially failed to disclose under oath before an Illinois House impeachment panel, records and interviews show. . . . Burris’ statement offers the third version of events he has given about his discussions concerning the Senate seat, to which Blagojevich appointed him in late December, after Blagojevich was hit with federal corruption charges that included an allegation he tried to sell the Senate appointment.”
We’re seeing an awful lot of that these days.
GOOD NEWS: Solar Photovoltaic Prices Seen Falling.
“WE ARE ALL FASCISTS NOW.” Hmm. Somebody should write a book about this phenomenon.
WILLIAM BRIGGS, STATISTICIAN: Count ‘em: The White House should not control the Census.
THE REALLY IMPORTANT STORY I MISSED THIS WEEK: Stephen Colbert’s colonoscopy.
BITES FROM THE APPLE: A roundup of news from the Apple Empire. Including “International Verify Your Backups Day.” Not a bad idea.
AT POPULAR MECHANICS: Blacksmithing 101: How to Make a Forge and Start Hammering Metal. A fun project, an enjoyable hobby, and a potentially valuable skill in the event of civilizational collapse!
I actually seriously considered setting up a forge a few years ago — my friends and I made Roman armor (lorica segmentata) back in high school and this stuff has always interested me. I reluctantly concluded — even pre-InstaPundit — that the last thing I needed was another time-consuming hobby . . .
HAROLD FORD, JR. FOR Secretary of Commerce?
JAMES RUMMEL: “What would happen if the police chief of a major city in the United States was kidnapped, tortured, and executed by criminals? I’m asking because something like that occurred in Mexico over the weekend.”
TODD ZYWICKI on bankruptcy and mortgage modifications.
IF HE WERE AN HONEST POLITICIAN, HE’D STAY BOUGHT: Sneaky Dodd Slips Bank Pay Limits Into Porkulus Bill. Of course, if a lot of bank executives jump ship and the banks crash, they can be nationalized and staffed with political loyalists, so it’s all good. . . . Some related thoughts here.
Dodd, Senate Banking Committee chairman, was a “friend of Angelo” as in Angelo Mozillo, the former CEO of Countrywide. As such Dodd received mortgage loans at favorable interest rates.
Being a one-time friend of Angelo’s has made Dodd seem much less a friend of the people. Quinnipiac University has a recent poll that suggested that Dodd could be vulnerable. . . . The Dodd provision in the stimulus legislation will certainly give Dodd a way to change the subject when Republicans hit him with the “friend of Mozillo” charge when his re-election campaign gets into high gear next year.
Seems to me that it’s a demonstration of double-ended opportunism, but I guess Dodd’s hoping the voters are too dumb to notice.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Advice on successful kissing from Popular Science. And, really, isn’t that the first place you’d go for kissing advice?
FOR A FRUGAL VALENTINE, skip the actual holiday and celebrate a week later to take advantage of the sales!
VIA THE COMMENTS AT BLACKFIVE, a Calvin and Hobbes take on the “stimulus.” Thanks to reader Wayne Hegner for the link.
POST-STIMULUS ADVICE: Don’t Get Angry, Get Even And Move Forward.
MEDICAL PRIVACY: A warning to Markos and me?
WEIRD: Toby Buckell reports on the experience of writing on paper.
IN THE MAIL: From Michael Scheuer, Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam After Iraq.
HMM: Justice Department Lawyers Held in Contempt: “An angry federal judge held Justice Department lawyers in contempt yesterday for failing to deliver documents to former senator Ted Stevens’s legal team, as he had ordered. . . . ‘Isn’t the Department of Justice taking court orders seriously these days?’”
I am, as readers well know, no Ted Stevens fan, but it’s beginning to look as if he got the shaft in this case. Did his absence allow the stimulus bill to go through? . . . .
OBAMA runs for the memory hole. Again.
CHRIS DODD UPDATE: Hartford Courant: Mortgaging His Future: “Five-term U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd has some thinking to do. Poll numbers are dropping and potential Republican opponents are circling like sharks in the water, sensing an opportunity to end the political career of Connecticut’s tarnished Democratic icon. . . . But the heaviest anchor around his neck is the controversy over the two mortgages he refinanced in 2003 at favorable terms with now-defunct Countrywide Financial. On Feb. 2, he let some reporters see the documents and announced he was refinancing again through a third party to remove the Countrywide taint. It seems a case of too little, too late. Quinnipiac’s latest polling yielded the senator’s worst results ever.”
GREGG WITHDRAWAL Ignites Census Rhubarb. “The White House power grab to apply ‘oversight’ of the national head count process will set off a war with the GOP.”
MORE ON THE PMA / MURTHA SCANDAL from Dan Riehl.
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY: Some advice from Amy Alkon and the Insta-Wife. Sex, love, and those damn Valentine’s day jewelry commercials. Plus, if Valentine’s Day is for women, what about “steak and bj day” for men? (Bumped for Valentine’s Day).
SOMEBODY AT BORDERS has a sly sense of humor.
RECESSION HITS CLOSE TO HOME: Law Faculty Furloughs, Pay Cuts, Pay Freezes, and Hiring Freezes.
THE 111TH CONGRESS shall live in infamy.
A STRONG REVIEW for a new book of slow-cooker recipes.
HOPE AND CHANGE — well, hoping for change, anyway: Afghan President Karzai hopes Obama will “settle down,” show “better judgment.”
MEGAN MCARDLE: Time to Short Jenny Craig? “Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that consumer spending on food registered the steepest drop we’ve seen since the government started collecting statistics 62 years ago. That’s not just restaurant spending, although that did fall sharply, but a series of shifts towards eating at home, preparing cheaper foods, and buying cheaper brands of the same foods. Cheap staples like milk and eggs rose slightly, while meat, sweets, and alcohol all fell.”
Hope, change, and (store-brand!) mac’n'cheese. None of that fancy stuff.
MURTHA UPDATE: PHONY DONORS?
Marvin Hoffman is listed in campaign finance records as one of the many lobbyists with the powerful PMA Group donating money to lawmakers. But Hoffman is a soon-to-retire information technology manager in Marina del Rey, Calif., who has never heard of the Arlington lobbying firm or the Indiana congressman to whom he supposedly gave $2,000.
“It’s alarming that someone is stealing my identity somewhere,” Hoffman, 75, said in an interview. “I’ve never heard of this company.”
Another contributor listed as a PMA lobbyist is, in fact, a sales manager for an inflatable boat manufacturer in New Jersey. John Hendricksen said he did make campaign donations but never worked at PMA and does not know how he ended up listed in records that way.
These errors, along with other unusual donations linked to the firm, come as the Justice Department examines allegations that PMA may have violated campaign finance laws. The offices of PMA, which ranked last year as the tenth biggest-earning lobby firm in Washington, were raided in November by FBI agents and Department of Defense investigators.
Plus this: “Federal investigators are focused on allegations that PMA founder Paul Magliocchetti, a former appropriations staffer close to Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), may have reimbursed some of his staff to cover contributions made in their names to Murtha and other lawmakers, according to two sources familiar with the investigation. . . . PMA, founded in 1989 by Magliocchetti, a former Murtha aide to the House Appropriations Committee, has enjoyed a high success rate in winning earmarks for its clients.”
VERONIQUE DE RUGY: “The final stimulus package is the final insult to taxpayers.”
INDEED: Gregg’s Withdrawal Stirs Speculation Over Obama’s Census Plan.
A reader suggests that this is Obama’s court-packing plan. Well, if so he got there a lot quicker than Roosevelt did.
NO LOVE FOR THE STIMULUS FROM LAMAR ALEXANDER: “This bill will give American workers $8 a week in their paychecks in exchange for passing along a $1 trillion debt to our grandchildren. The entire New Deal in today’s dollars cost only half of what this bill costs.” To be fair, it’ll be $13 a week until next January.
ROGER KIMBALL: The most depressing thing I have heard in a long time.
“STIMULUS” BILL passes the Senate and goes to Obama. Oink.
UPDATE: Friday the 13th.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Scorching the Earth.
WHO WOULD HILLARY RATHER KISS? Bill, or Barack? Video at the link.
SO I FINALLY READ TOBY BUCKELL’S Sly Mongoose — it got buried under a bunch of other books, as happens all too often here — and I got all the way to the acknowledgments at the end and saw that he thanked me, along with John Scalzi, for the web-promotion of his previous books. Thanks, Toby! Great book.
A BEHEADING IN New York State.
PUTTING solar mirrors in the Mojave.
MARKDOWNS ON blenders, mixers and food processors. Everyone should have a blender.
BUT I THOUGHT DISSENT WAS THE HIGHEST FORM OF PATRIOTISM! Dems Target Right-Wing Talk Radio.
DAN CLEARY: Kos is Krazy. I disagree. I think that Kos knows exactly what he is doing.
NOW I’VE BEEN WATCHING THE “STIMULUS” BILL AND THINKING IT WAS A PORKBUSTERS DEFEAT, but Matt Yglesias says I’m wrong about that.
IS IT THE END OF “LIBERALTARIANISM?” “During the ‘long boom’ unleashed by the Reagan revolution, it was possible for libertarian intellectuals to believe that the arguments for economic freedom were now so blindingly vindicated that even their progressive peers must admit the obvious truth.” The coming years will be a test of intellectual honesty vs. class solidarity.
THE OBAMA YEARS: Carter on Speed?
