TAR, FEATHERS: Court: State Can Dump Non-Sex Offenders Into Registry. “Georgia’s Supreme Court is upholding the government’s right to put non-sex offenders on the state’s sex-offender registry, highlighting a little-noticed (but growing) nationwide practice.”
Well, hell, if you can pass a bill without a vote, I guess you can be a “sex offender” without sex. I wonder if this will be used against shopping malls who falsely imprison teens charged with shoplifting . . . .
WHY DID WE HAVE A FINANCIAL CRISIS? Because regulators didn’t believe in efficient markets. “If regulators had been true believers in efficiency, they would have been considerably more skeptical about some of the consistently high returns being reported by various financial institutions. If the capital market is fiercely competitive, there is a good chance that high returns are attributable to high leverage, high risk, inside information, or dishonest accounting. True believers in efficiency would have looked more closely at the leverage and risk-taking positions of Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns, AIG, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and banks and investment banks generally. They might have questioned the source of the trading profits of hedge funds like Galleon, and discovered some using inside information. And they would have been exceptionally skeptical of the surreally high and stable returns reported over an extended period by Bernie Madoff.”
CAN’T GET YOUR CONGRESSFOLKS ON THE PHONE? Pete Hoekstra says to call state legislatures. Hey, reapportionment is coming up . . . .
JOHN HINDERAKER: We’re Gonna Win, Twins! “Baseball fans here are giddy with excitement.”
CBO SCORE PRELIMINARY, final numbers not available until Saturday or Sunday — perhaps after the vote? Plus this: “If it kicked in right away, the decade-long estimate would obviously be well into the trillions. So they simply stalled it for four years, incurring just $17 billion in costs — or 1.8 percent of the total 10-year estimate — through 2013 so that wavering Democrats could go back to their districts and tell baldfaced lies to their constituents about the pricetag. A perfect ending to this travesty.”
IN THE MAIL: From Jack Cashill, Popes and Bankers: A Cultural History of Credit and Debt, from Aristotle to AIG.
IF YOU MISSED IT LAST NIGHT, check out part 2 of my interview with Scott Rasmussen: Citizen Surge: Rasmussen On Tea Party Politics & The Return Of Self-Governance.
CHARLIE GASPARINO: America’s Debt Gets Scary.
PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE ON OBAMACARE:
In other words, my premiums will go down because healthy young people who currently get by without insurance will be forced to buy policies they may not even want. (When I was young and healthy, I got by quite happily with a bare bones Blue Cross policy that only covered catastrophic expenses). It’s a wealth transfer from the young and uninsured to the old and insured.
But, as an insured old fart, who am I to complain?
And the younger voters supported Obama, so you don’t even have to feel guilty.
OBAMA TO DEMS: Save my presidency, vote for ObamaCare. Plus this: “White House officials said Obama’s recent remarks aren’t intended to personalize the debate or rally undecided Democratic members with an egocentric, ‘win one for Barry’ message.” Well, that’s good to know.
A REVIEW OF She’s Out Of My League.
JENNIFER RUBIN NOTES THAT David Brooks is figuring out who the rubes were. There’s a lot of that going on. . . .
VALUES UNDER PRESSURE: Brandi Milloy talks to Andrew Klavan.
CUBA’S unknown dissidents.
ADVICE TO LITIGATORS: Calm down.
ROGER SIMON: Obama On Fox: It’s Desperation Time. “There’s no way Barack Obama would have appeared on Fox Wednesday night in a sit-down interview with Bret Baer had not the President’s health care bill been in serious trouble.”
UH OH: Moody’s Fears Social Unrest As AAA States Implement Austerity Plans. “The US rating agency said the US, the UK, Germany, France, and Spain are walking a tightrope as they try to bring public finances under control without nipping recovery in the bud. It warned of ‘substantial execution risk’ in withdrawal of stimulus.” Bah. With the team of geniuses we’ve got running things, what could go wrong?
CORRESPONDENCE WITH Steven Vincent’s widow.
SPAGHETTI WITH CANTELOUPE: Yes, you read that correctly.
JONATHAN ADLER: Would “Deem & Pass” Survive Judicial Review?
WHO NEEDS ADT OR BROADVIEW? Homeowner Kills Attempted Robber In Driveway Shootout.
BARACK OBAMA TO ANN ALTHOUSE: “Ann — I wanted to take a moment to thank you directly for the outstanding work you’ve been doing for health reform.”
RATINGS: Cartoon Network beats CNN, MSNBC. It has more believable characters.
OBVIOUSLY, THIS PROSECUTOR’S BUDGET IS TOO BIG: Third Circuit Upholds Injunction of Threatened “Sexting” Prosecution.
So the prosecutor (1) threatened to prosecute plaintiff’s daughter (2) even though it turns out he didn’t have probable cause for a prosecution (3) unless the daughter went through the “education program.” All three elements, it turns out, seem to be crucial to the decision.
Perhaps the injunction can be amended to require District Attorney George Skumanick to undergo mandatory constitutional rights sensitivity training. Or tar and feathering, whatever.
FROM READER ROB KISER, his book, Killing Strangers.
WHO NEEDS A CONTRACT WITH AMERICA? Congressional Candidate Gives Supporters Permission To Hang Him. “‘If I don’t do what I say, I’ll give you my address, and you can bring a rope and you can hang me,’ Fincher told the crowd.” I like that.
THE NETROOTS: So who are the rubes, again?
Rahm Emanuel insulted Nutroots types by calling them “retards,” also claiming they could be taken for granted on Obama Care and mostly ignored. Of course, the Netroot bloggers were furious.
So, what did they do about it? Precisely what he said they would, nothing.
No surprise there.
OBAMA ON FOX NEWS: Comments from Tunku Varadarajan and Jammie Wearing Fool. Here’s some video.
THE GENDER DEGREE GAP and the Great Mancession.
JOSE GUARDIA: What’s up with the White House Twitter avatar?
POWER LINE: These Are The Good Old Days. “If Obamacare passes, President Obama and the Democrats will become part of, and perhaps dominate, most of these conversations. Every excessive wait, every missed phone call, every postponed appointment will become Obama’s fault. . . . These complaints won’t be confined to the elderly. Old people complain more about their dealings with doctors primarily because they spend so much more time with them. But I’ve never met a person who likes being blown off by a doctor or sitting for 40 minutes in the waiting room, plus an extra 15 in the examining room before the doctor arrives. Nor have I ever met a person who enjoys hearing his or her aging parents complain about their medical service, especially when the complaint is justified.”
IN A WORD, YES: Does Hayek belong in High School Economics Classes? To hold up the inclusion of Hayek as evidence of excessive conservative bias is self-refuting. I mean, if that’s all you’ve got . . . .
Of course, Hayek is rapidly becoming so extremely cool that high-school students will be reading him on their own.
UPDATE: From the comments:
My fourth grader has been assigned four essays so far this year. They were on MLK, Michael Jordan, Dr. Charles Drew and his mother. He knows who Eleanor Roosevelt was, but not FDR. He identifies Albert Einstein as “a famous immigrant”. He knows who Rosa Parks was, but not Abe Lincoln.
Hurray for somebody teaching Hayek. At this point, even teaching who Salma Hayek is would be an improvement.
Heh.
MARKDOWNS ON cellphones and accessories. So should I get a Droid, a Nexus One, or a Palm Pre Plus? I like the mobile-hotspot feature in the Palm.
CITIZEN SURGE: On a special Tea Party TV edition of InstaVision, I talk with Scott Rasmussen about Tea Party Politics & The Return Of Self-Governance. Plus, how the American political class is like Detroit auto executives in the 1970s, and what Tea Partiers can learn from Luke Skywalker.
And, once again, I recommend his new book, In Search of Self Governance.
SIGN OF THE TIMES: I just got an email from Democrat Roy Herron, who’s running for John Tanner’s seat in Tennessee. Here’s the key bit:
My top three priorities in Washington will be fiscal responsibility, fiscal responsibility, and fiscal responsibility.
Washington is mortgaging the future of my sons and your children and our grandchildren. And Washington is risking the future of this country with trillions in debt.
I drive a 12-year-old truck with 375,000 miles on it. My sons call me cheap, but Washington needs more of us with 375,000-mile pickups who’ll spend your money like our own.
Sounding more like Scott Brown than Barack Obama . . . . And who’s this “Washington” he’s running against, exactly? . . .
OBAMA WILL BE IN FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA FRIDAY, and Tea Partiers are planning to meet him.
DAN RIEHL: What is FreedomWorks’ Problem?
HEH. THAT’S FUNNY. Helen and I looked at Toyotas today, too.
WILL WE SEE PROTESTS LIKE THIS HERE IF OBAMACARE PASSES? Thai Red Shirts hurl own blood at PM’s house.
RETRACTO’S VACATION appears to be going well. Come back rested, Retracto — your work isn’t finished!
HOME TAPING: Killing music? And home sleeping is killing hotels!
BOINGBOING: DID PEREZ HILTON violate federal obscenity law? From the comments: “So wait, Perez Hilton’s very existence isn’t offensive, but dwarf porn is? I’d rather see the dwarf porn than anything Perez has to say about it.”
THE DRAFT COMPLAINT IS ALREADY ONLINE: Landmark Legal Foundation to File Suit to Stop President’s Health Plan if ‘Slaughter Rule’ is Used.
QUIZ: What’s your DIY IQ?
GOING GREEN: Some recipes for St. Patrick’s Day cocktails.
POLITICAL WIRE: OBAMA UPSIDE DOWN: “For the first time, the Gallup daily tracking poll shows more people disapproving of President Obama’s job performance than approving, 47% to 46%.”
Related: Record-breaker: Obama runs up $2 trillion in debt in 421 days.
UPDATE: Rasmussen: GOP opens a ten-point lead on generic Congressional ballot.
MEGAN MCARDLE RESPONDS TO talking points on polls and Medicare: “Now, Medicare popularity did improve after it passed. On the other hand, it wasn’t passed despite terrible polling, with a controversial process, by a political party that was tanking in popularity thanks to a grinding recession.”
WANT AN ELECTRIC CAR? Home electrical upgrades for fast recharging can cost thousands. And it’s not just at home: “Many people will want to recharge their car while at work due to longer commutes that use up most of a battery’s capacity in just one direction from home to work. So affordable pluggable hybrid electric vehicles PHEVs and plain EVs will generate workplace demand for parking lot electric chargers too.”
Plus this: “Families with teens will need 4 car recharging capacity. Imagine the future real estate ads.”
ADVERTISING FROM THE SPACE AGE: Madison Avenue’s Moon Shot.
ANN ALTHOUSE ON ERIC HOLDER’S POSTURING: “If bin Laden openly surrendered or he was trapped and utterly defenseless, we couldn’t gun him down. And then what would Holder do? Read Miranda rights to bin Laden’s not-yet-a-corpse? Try him like a Manson? Ah, but Holder doesn’t want you to think about that. He suddenly wants to strike the Dick Cheney bring-me-his-head-on-a-platter pose… until we stop calling him weak, his blood cools down, and he can get back to lecturing us about America’s abstract ideals.”
RADLEY BALKO ON Pre-Crime Policing.
C-SPAN LAUNCHES ITS online video library.
SHOCKER: New Poll Finds Americans Really, Really Do Not Want ObamaCare.
UPDATE: Bryan Preston emails from Texas:
Hey Glenn, here’s my take on how things look on ObamaCare this afternoon. First, the Kucinich gambit this morning shows where Pelosi thinks she can make up votes – on the left. The Dem leadership is undoubtely hoping to pick up some more centrist votes if they can, but with even liberalish Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett being noncommittal as he answers constituent queries today, they probably suspect that they’re losing the center faster by the minute.
Another data point: For the first time ever, liberal trolls are showing up on our state GOP facebook page to argue in favor of Slaughter and even promote the astroturf Coffee Party. Up to now, liberals never bothered with that page. But suddenly they’re active on the page and teaming up against our usual commenters. It’s a safe bet that OfA is involved in this somehow.
Indeed.
UNEARTHING “a vigorous forest of phallic symbols.”
A CHINA SUPERBUBBLE GOING TO BURST? “China’s defiance of the global recession is not a miracle – it’s a superbubble. When it deflates, it will spell big trouble for all of us.”
WHY INDIA loves Facebook.
IN CANADA, a credit bubble?
IS IT WRONG TO make speeding-Prius jokes? One of my colleagues thinks the whole Prius thing will actually be good for Toyota — before, Priuses were associated with smug hipsters, but now they’ll be associated with death-defying daredevils!
IN THE MAIL: From Zane Lamprey, Three Sheets: Drinking Made Easy! 6 Continents, 15 Countries, 190 Drinks, and 1 Mean Hangover! I’m a fan of his TV show.
MICHAEL YON: Man Dogs.
IS BARACK OBAMA too big to fail?
MORE PROBLEMS with the Slaughter Solution? The biggest problem, of course, is that two weeks ago Obama was calling for an up-or-down vote, and now the House is doing its best to avoid just that . . . .
FROM THE ANNALS OF POOR TASTE: Aw, how cute, it’s Baby Hitler.
FASTER, PLEASE: Winning the war on cancer? US death rates show broad decline.
MICHAEL BARONE: What’s good for House leaders is bad for members.
WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Obama’s New Partner: Al Sharpton. Kinda like if Bush had brought in David Duke to solidify things in the South . . . .
SUSANNAH BRESLIN: Warner Bros. wants you to torture a woman to death.
PREPARING FOR THE INEVITABLE CANNING BACKLASH.
UPDATE: Thoughts on Foodie warfare.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Reflections On The Revolution In America.
DAVID HARSANYI: Why Are We Still Bowing?
UPDATE: Reader C.J. Burch writes: “This is an easy one. Stop doing it. The people that demand it don’t deserve the respect. Hell, they don’t deserve any respect.” C.J. Burch for Secretary of State! Heck, at this point I’d settle for tough-talking Secretary of State Atrios.
IT’S THE 21ST CENTURY: Pfizer Employee Claims Company Fired Her After Infection From An Engineered Virus. “A former Pfizer scientist is suing the pharmaceuticals giant after alleging she contracted an artificial, HIV-like, virus created by a colleague. In her lawsuit, Becky McClain claims Pfizer unlawfully dismissed her while she suffered bouts of paralysis brought on by the man-made virus. Pfizer denies these accusations, and says McClain simply didn’t come to work, and only linked her problems to engineered-disease exposure after she was fired.”
JONAH GOLDBERG: Tea Partiers Aren’t Radicals, They’re Restorationists.
OBAMACARE took a big plunge on Intrade yesterday.
Maybe it was Dr. Milt Wolf’s TV appearance that did it . . . .
CNN ON HEALTHCARE: Jack Cafferty: Pelosi ‘Beyond Sleazy’ For Endorsing Slaughter Solution.
THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT: Free Gibson iPhone App puts a guitar teacher in your pocket.
NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE: MORE DOCTORS PLANNING TO “Go Galt” if ObamaCare passes.
UPDATE: Hmm. NEJM is backing away from the survey now.
WHITE HOUSE’S “ARROGANT” APPROACH TO HEALTH CARE.
SLAUGHTER STRATEGY RIPPED . . . by Blanche Lincoln?
MEGAN MCARDLE: “Having promised to post the bill online for 72 hours before they vote, the Democrats now have about a day to get a good score if they want to vote by Saturday.”
AT AMAZON, markdowns on electronics.
“THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR MCCAIN” — the series.
JIM GERAGHTY: Seven More House Democrats With Good Reason to Sweat.
DESPERATE: President Obama seeks Democratic votes on Fox News.
UPDATE: Desperate, but not serious. Thanks for the link, Smitty.
ERIC HOLDER, DUE-PROCESS CIVIL LIBERTARIAN: “Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress on Tuesday that Osama bin Laden will never face trial in the United States because he will not be captured alive. . . . [Holder] predicted that events would ensure ‘we will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden’ not to the al-Qaida leader as a captive.”
They told me if I voted for McCain, the war on terror would be run by a bloodthirsty cowboy who’d make a mockery of civil liberties. And they were right!
UPDATE: Oh, well — at least we’re not sending people to be tortured anymore. Oh, wait — Target Of Obama-Era Rendition Alleges Torture. Hope and change!
MASSACHUSETTS TREASURER: ObamaCare Will Bankrupt The Country.
HEALTHCARE UPDATE: Video: Congressman Gerry Connolly’s staff calls cops on constituents .
UPDATE: Shutting the people out. Reader C.J. Burch writes: “The last thing the people’s representatives want to do is hear from the people.” Especially at the moment.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Remind you of the Republicans in 2007?
MORE: Reader Jim Holmes disagrees: “The staffers in question are being polite while trying to point out rules which don’t allow filming. The folks doing the hit job strike me as being uninterested in talking, they’re just in full snark mode and incapable of trying to STFU and open a dialog. They strike me as the right-wing version of the 60’s war protesters who invaded various college campus offices.” Oh, they’re much better behaved than that.
ANOTHER RALLY AGAINST OBAMACARE: 400+ Tea Party Patriots Show Up To Protest in Royal Oak, MI.
And here’s a report, with photos, from the San Diego rally.
SEXISM: Pelosi Calls All Female Democratic Members Into Meeting.
Is she channeling Carol Shea-Porter?
