Month: May 2005
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The nuclear option is worse than I realized
Via Andrew Sullivan and Tapped, here’s Norm Ornstein (PhD in political science) with the best explanation I’ve seen of what’s wrong with the nuclear option from a parliamentary rules standpoint (see also Josh Marshall). I don’t buy all the silly arguments about the end of dissent that I’ve been mocking for weeks. But the way
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Loose cannon watch: Howard Dean (part II)
A few days ago, Howard Dean called Tom DeLay a criminal even though no charges have even been filed. And he’s not backing down: Howard Dean, national chairman of the Democratic Party, said Tuesday that he thinks House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has committed crimes that could put the Republican in jail. …”There’s corruption at
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What is Alan Reynolds talking about? (Inequality edition)
Writing in today’s Wall Street Journal, the Cato Institute’s Alan Reynolds attacks the ongoing New York Times series on inequality: To deny progress, the Times series claims that “for most workers, the only time in the last three decades when the rise in hourly pay beat inflation was during the speculative bubble of the 90’s.”
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Big talk from Harvey Rosen
Harvey Rosen, the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, writes in a Wall Street Journal op-ed today that “Policy makers now need to … take the much bigger step of permanently fixing Social Security’s funding imbalance.” So why does the President’s plan close only 30 percent of the program’s 75-year deficit? Call
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The presidential/parliamentary choice
A reader poses a good question to National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru: An email opens up a new topic: “The United States has been the world’s greatest inspiration to freedom-lovers and young democracy movements for over 200 years. So why is it that worldwide — including now in Iraq — new democracies overwhelmingly choose the parliamentary
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Edmund Andrews on Bush Social Security trickery
Edmund Andrews documents some classic White House goalpost-shifting and tricks with numbers in the NYT: While Mr. Bush has alluded only vaguely to the idea [of “progressive indexing”], White House officials have promoted it in considerable detail. According to one White House chart, people at every income level appear to end up winners. Middle-income workers,
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The parallel Star Wars/Simpsons debates
Has anyone noticed that the debate among fans of the old and new Star Wars trilogies mirrors the debate over the old and new Simpsons almost perfectly? Here’s USA Today on Star Wars – check out the parallels: We’re not talking Jedi knights vs. Sith lords, Obi-Wan vs. Anakin or even good vs. evil. When
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My profession stands up
Via Eszter Hargittai at Crooked Timber, I see that the American Political Science Association (of which I am a member) has taken a strong stand (PDF) against the boycott of two Israeli universities by a British higher education union: The American Political Science Association, through action by its Council and its Committee on Professional Ethics,
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When “transcription errors” attack
Via Editor and Publisher and Gawker, one of the best corrections ever: Because of a transcription error, an article last Sunday in Summer Movies, Part 2 of this section, about the director Don Roos rendered a word incorrectly in his comment about the use of onscreen titles in his film “Happy Endings.” He said, “I
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The nuclear option clown show: Tom McMahon
Tom McMahon, DNC executive director, sent out yet another email full of nuclear option agitprop today: Reports say that this week the fringe Republican leadership plans to make its final move in the battle over judicial nominees — they will change the rules to crush dissent in the Senate and throw out the principle of