March 2009
1 post
“This is probably too strong, but Hitler also gave great speeches.”
– Doug Haney, the city attorney in Carmel, Ind. and a Republican precinct committeeman at the CPAC.
Yes Doug, it is too strong to compare Obama to Hitler.
February 2009
9 posts
Brad DeLong is Fantastic
Three-Word Slogans!
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite: Maximilien Robespierre’s Revolutionary Dictatorship.
Travail, Famille, Patrie: Philippe Petain’s Collaborationist WWII-Era Dictatorship.
Discipline, Efficiency, Prosperity: Peter Orszag’s OMB Weblog.
Orszag actually has done a truly fantastic job with the budget, and seeing him and Romer up there today made me a little...
John Kerry Cuts Loose →
I supported John Kerry in 2004. For some reason (well, because he lost) I’m supposed to regret that decision. But I don’t. Kerry would have been worlds better than Bush over the past four years. Although we might not have gotten Obama until 2012, so… I don’t know. The point is, John Kerry wasn’t terrible, and I in no way regret supporting him.
Happy With Barack? I Am.
I watched two excellent speeches tonight. One given by the President of the United States, and the other given by a Harvard Psychologist at the TED Conference in 2004. I’m going to focus on the latter, at least initially.
The speech, given by Dan Gilbert, was on the synthesis of happiness; and you should probably spend the next twenty minutes watching it. Or don’t and just read my...
A Liberal Empiricist Gchat on Daschle, Stimulus,...
Alex: the Republicans are just straight up winning the spin battle right now
and apparently its required that you cheat on your taxes to be considered for Obama's cabinet
i mean COME ON!
pull it together
this is bush league bullshit out of the white house right now
and then they withdrew the nom?
after all that
ouch
Spike: never admit a mistake
ever
that's how you win
"I didn't pay taxes because I wasn't supposed to pay taxes"
Tom Daschle is a coward
always has been
good man
coward
at the end of the day, he was the best man to make sure universal health care could make it through the house
and senate
he was the best
Alex: for sure
Spike: who pays taxes on their housekeepers?
no one, that's who
seriously
that does not disqualify you from public service
Alex: universal health care is a fucking pipe dream
after this political travesty by the dems
THEY CONTROL GOVERNMENT
they shouldnt be losing
Spike: tom daschle is a fucking coward
he would have been confirmed
Alex: dems in the house packed this thing with bullshit spending that is useless
Obama's bill was great
now the house leadership is acting like the pigs in animal farm
Spike: kind of
I mean, it wasn't that bad
50 mil for the NEA would be consumed quickly
I mean, it's not ideal, but it isn't bullshit if the goal is quick consumption and dispersal
Alex: the goal is a quick decisive bipartisan vote
THATS IT
THAT IS ALL
Spike: well, yeah
Alex: reid put up more fucking easy targets than I can count
Spike: the thing is that they were going to shoot at anything
they want the bill to fail
so they will force the dems to water it down
and then they won't vote for it
so when it fails they have no responsibility
that's their only move
they have no other move
if they want power in 2012
Alex: no
you make it about 4 marquis things
education, roads, broadband, and housing or whatever
no pet democratic projects from the 70's
snuck in
Spike: even if it's that they'll shoot at it
it doesn't matter
they have one play
Alex: of course but they're winning
Spike: they won't win if we don't water it down and they actually force a cloture vote
Alex: the bill is getting ugly
they're shooting down his nominees while holding up what is clearly a democratic bill that is losing popularity
its bad
im just really angry at the small percentage of money that wernt to hot-button issues that made easy political targets
condoms?
come on
they didnt see that coming?
Spike: but they made it about health care
and that was something they could spend money on that's made in the US
I mean, there was no way for it to be bulletproof
Alex: i disagree
but
hey
Spike: so you just have to accept the fact that there is no game theoretic reason for the republicans to get on board and make it happen
Alex: i can accept that
Spike: probably fewer condoms
sure
whatever
condoms feel weird
The Satori Group's New Website →
I’ve been making this website for my theatre company, which has definitely cut down on my posts here. So check it out! Our first show in Seattle, TRAGEDY: a tragedy by Will Eno opens March 26th up on Capitol Hill at the Little Theatre.
“This is a president that, fuck, we have some sort of crush on this man. He...”
– Dave Eggers on a fictional president. GOTCHA!
(H/T slog)
January 2009
55 posts
The Financial Panic of 1837 →
So… we’ve done this before. It’s fascinating to me how much cleaner a comparison 1837 is to our present situation than the Great Depression is. Too bad Bernanke isn’t an expert on 19th century financial panics. Oh well. You lose some, you lose some.
Also fascinating to me are the similarities between the Jackson Administration and the Bush Administration. Bush was...
Global Warming Skepticism... Still? Really?
Come on, Fox News. Really? Al Gore has Venus Envy? Really?
The question with global warming at this point is not, “is it happening?” It is happening. If you didn’t believe it was happening ten years ago, read the last ten years’ worth of research. The question is also not, “is Earth going to become Venus?” Earth is not going to become Venus. Al Gore...
Deep Capture →
I’m still in San Francisco for SF Sketchfest, so if you are having blog withdrawl hit this up and get your mind blown!
Wha Happened - Where Is My Nuclear Power?
What opposition could the Bush Administration have had over the past 8 years to the proliferation of Nuclear Energy? Seriously, if they didn’t care about the environment and long run implications of our energy policy (and it’s clear that they didn’t) then why wasn’t nuclear energy pushed hard?
I see both sides of the nuclear argument, and tend to fall on the, “it...
Coeur Alaska, Inc. v. Southeast Alaskan... →
To set the scene, Mr. Olsen is defending Coeur Alaska, a mining corporation against charges that they are violating the Clean Water Act in front of the Supreme Court.
From the transcript:
MR. OLSON: And what’s being put in this settling area, this lake, is the sand, which is the same consistency of the bottom of the lake. It’s inert material. It does not changing the chemical composition. It is...
WatchThere is only one hope…
Seriously, Do Not Mess With Rahmbo (.pdf) →
The Bush Administration has pushed through some egregious midnight legislation. Doctors and nurses can refuse treatment if they have moral opposition to the treatment being offered. The Endangered Species Act has been gutted. Robots have been given the right to turn on their human masters (okay, not true).
So many rules were being pushed through in fact, that the Bush Administration ran out...
Tapping the Brakes
How the hell did the confirmation of Eric Holder get delayed? When did the Republicans take back control of the Senate? This is an absurd failure on the part of the Democratic Senate Leadership.
Don’t buy the bullshit about Chiquita or Rich. Eric Holder’s confirmation is being held up because he said the words, “waterboarding is torture.” These are true words that...
Getting Fiscal →
Rather than explain again why we are past the point of relying on monetary policy to pull us out of this (rec/depr)ession I’ll let Paul Krugman do it with a graph. Seriously, we are facing a major liquidity trap, to the point where adjusting the money supply will not fix things without creating uncontrollable inflationary pressure. If there were no such thing as fiscal stimulus, then sure,...
The Best Thing You'll See All Day →
Congratulations Mr. President
Pardon Me, Good Sir
Not a lot of time left for Bush to make things worse. Short of launching a nuclear strike against Iran in the next 22 hours, we’re pretty much in the clear when it comes to atrocities eminating from the Oval Office. But what about past atrocities? The president has, in the face of rampant speculation, yet to issue a blanket pardon for war crimes/torture. And for the Republicans sake, I don’t...
Inaugural Part 2
By Alex Matthews
In my post last week, I talked about the tone in DC and the prospects for Obama’s Inaugural address. Sometimes it’s easy to think that the inaugural is a symbolic moment, a national orgasm that doesn’t necessarily have political implications; more of a curtain call than anything else. While that assessment isn’t altogether wrong, there are some pragmatic...
An Economy of Faith →
David Brooks produces one of my favorite op-ed columns of the year. Um… what??? Seriously though, he nails it.
The assumptions of classical economics are wrong. You can model a society with incorrect assumptions, but it limits the applications of those models. There is economic research being done using empirically preferable sets of assumptions. Most of it is microeconomic; it is...
One Hour
95% of the White House Staff leaves in one hour for good. They hand in their access cards. One Hour.
Overworked NSA To Country: “Can You Shut Up For...
hatethefuture:
Citing a dire need to “catch up on domestic surveillance” following the holidays, stressed-out employees of the National Security Agency issued an irritable statement to Americans on Thursday: “stuff your yaps or we’ll stuff ’em for ya.”
The agency’s wiretappers and computer hackers noted that they are only human, there are a finite number of hours in a day, and they’d love to be...
“It is not true that individuals possess a prescriptive ‘natural liberty’ in...”
– John Keynes
(H/T DeLong… who is awesome)
I Bet They Assume This Is Being Reported Here In... →
20% of Gitmo inmates are on a hunger strike. Which might work better if anyone noticed. Or if power weren’t about to change hands to someone who will begin the process of closing the prison in the next week. But how would they know that?
We’ve done some outrageous stuff over the past 8 years.
Why I Loathe the National Review →
Jonah Goldberg reposting a reader’s e-mail without comment that suggests with regard to Social Security, “its [sic] appropriate that the relatively poorly-paid (the biggest beneficiaries) should pay more.”
Yeah, let’s get rid of the safety net in society. Good call. Those who have the least should pay the most. Regressive tax policy. Me too angry. No make proper...
The Only Ten-I-See
By Alex Matthews
The Tennessee House was split this morning 50 Republicans and 49 Democrats. The entire House Republican majority showed up to watch what should have amounted to a handover of the speakership from former Democrat Jimmy Naifeh to Jason Mumpower, the GOP nominee for the position. But in a hilariously brilliant turn of events, all of the Democrats voted for RINO (Republican In Name...
Housekeeping!
Yeah, the title is a reference to a Kevin Meany comedy bit circa 1993. Deal with it. Then buy the ringtone, I guess… I don’t know… you probably shouldn’t buy the ringtone.
A couple of things. One: the link to the site is now liberalempiricist.com. You don’t need to put in the tumblr (though you can, it’ll still work). Two: Alex Matthews’ posts will...
Inaugurate This! (FDR Grabs Crotch)
By Alex Matthews
Obama’s inaugural has been prematurely compared to FDR’s in 1933, but will likely be much closer in its tone and the overall political atmosphere to that which Ronald Reagan gave in 1981 for several reasons which I don’t need to go into here; post a response or e-mail me if you want to argue the point. It’s shaping up to be less of a, “Fear Not for I am...
Wha’ Happen??? Part 1-- 9/11
Terrible policy decisions were made during the Bush Administration. Rather than speculate on what’s going to happen during the Obama Administration in this last week of transition, motivated by Bush’s final presser I’m gonna look back in a multi-part series I’m calling, Wha’ Happen???
I don’t blame President Bush for what happened on September 11th, 2001. Sure he had a report cross his desk...
Full Court Press
By Alex Matthews
One of the most difficult transitions to make for an incoming president is changing his relationship with the press. Campaigning is about controlling the media and staying on message. In many ways success on the campaign trail has to do with when you don’t talk to reporters or when you don’t schedule press events. The White House is a different game. The most...
Anton Scalia Cannot Tell Fact From Fiction →
I’ve always grudgingly accepted Scalia’s presence on the bench, because after reading some of his opinions his intellect consistently shines through. Sure, I don’t agree with him ever, and sure, he isn’t as interesting a conservative as Justice Roberts, but he’s tolerable (as opposed to Alito and Thomas).
This though… this is bananas. He is citing Jack...
Executive Power, Ctd.
From Alex Matthews, in response to the Ben Smith article linked to below:
Obviously, the huge question looming at 12:01 pm on Jan 20th will be this: Will Obama’s administration investigate war crimes perpetrated by the previous administration? Will he prosecute? We’ve been put into a tight spot. Nevermind the moral arguments like how do we launch wars to protect the rule of law against...
How Porsche Killed a Billionaire →
An amazing story about the downfall of Adolf Merckle. Kind of reminds me of Trading Places… only instead of Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd it was the guys who make the Boxster. Less hilarious.
Ceding Executive Power (Further Vindication) →
When I was pressed on why I was voting for Obama over Hilary in the primaries, my answer was, “I have a feeling that Obama is more likely to cede executive power back to the legislature, even if it reduces his ability to act quickly to right the wrongs of the Bush Administration. I don’t feel confidant that Hilary will do so.” I based this on feeling, not empiricism. And while...
Stop! Stop! You’re Both Wrong!
Far be it from me to tell both Nate Silver and Greg Mankiw that they’re both wrong. Mostly because they are Nate Silver and Greg Mankiw. But they are. They’re also both right, but that’s a less controversial position. Catch up on the debate here and here. Essentially, they are arguing over whether you can apply the Romers’ research (.pdf) on the benefits of/multipliers associated with...
Light Rail Repost
This a repost of a comment that I made in response to Mike Broukhim’s question on Light Rail versus buses. Since apparently this is the day when Mike and I fellate each other on Tumblr… I’ll just say that he is preternaturally brilliant to the point that my grandmother would ask after Mike years after we stopped going to school together.
Doing a full accounting on public...
WatchSometimes when I load the site Hulu gets mad… so just in case go to this link for Steve Martin and Amy Poehler learning a valuable lesson in debt management: http://www.hulu.com/watch/1389/saturday-night-live-dont-buy-stuff
More Proof That Pirates Are Not Terrorists →
Somali pirates released the Saudi tanker they were holding today for a price of 3 million dollars. These are thieves, not terrorists. They can be negotiated with. In this case, they accepted 12% of their original asking price. This is a problem of crime, not a military issue. Let’s make sure to treat it as such.
The best way to deal with crime is to restabilize the underlying causes...
Room for Debate at the NY Times →
Too bad the Times is about to die (I can’t find the link… but I read that the print copy has maybe 6 months before it is nixed except for Sundays…) because this is a nice little forum they have going.
Say What You Will About Neoconservatism... At...
Richard Pearl explains that neoconservative ideology played a very small part in the invasion of Iraq. I guess he thinks he can wash his hands of the mess that he made and his philosophy will live to fight another ill-advised war some other day. To which I have to say, oh really? No one is buying this. And even if it were true, does it make anything better?
At this point I want the...