Politics
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Qualifications for president
Perhaps it’s me, but is the incidence of presidential candidates having young children higher than normal? Obama, Edwards, IIRC McCain as well, and I’m sure I’m leaving a few out. Personally I think we should raise (via constitutional amendment) the minimum age for president to at least 55. Why would anyone want to subject their children to life in the public eye?
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Thoughts on Scooter Libby
I haven’t paid much attention to the Libby trial. Joe Wilson always seemed like too much of a pompous blowhard, and Libby too much of a devoted apparachik, to care much. However, like tax cuts, impeachments and special prosecutors are always good.
Two surprising things
- Fitzgerald convicted Libby on essentially technical grounds, which struck me as odd, as he’s a rather talented lawyer. IIRC he was Clinton pardonee Marc Rich’s lawyer.
- No one has brought up this reason for the animus towards Wilson; to wit: Cheney’s office is filled with 45-65 year old true believers who all work 60-80 hours a week. Along comes some guy who retired in his late 40s who tries to tell them their business (and not too well either). That has to some sort of huge insult in the late middle aged workaholic society.
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Random assortment of links
- Frank Miller is going to be on G4 on Sunday.
- A 96 year old mobster has his day in court. His mob name is “The Old Man” which is rather unimaginative. His record goes back to 1932.
- Stand-in mistress sought to take wife’s abuse
- Your tax dollars at work, in hovering cloud of smoke form.
- Underground coal fires.
- A horrible abuse of language from the junior senator from Massachusetts. “
Might I ask you what your opinion is with respect to the state of American politics as regards the politics of personal destruction?
He has the perfectly descriptive term, slander, to use and yet he came up with that. He makes Bush seem downright articulate sometimes.
- A lot of interesting talk on Gore, and specifically his carbon offsetting program from Marginal Revolution and The Economist. FYI – he seems to be a part owner of the offsetting company.
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Quick tab clearing roundup
- The Sunni-Shia Quiz – I got a 100!
- Private solutions to Global Warming
- Ron Paul is running for president! Finally a good republican.
- Engineering Quotes
- Woman Fired For Writing About Avoiding Work
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Quote of the moment
Paraphrased from Brink Lindsay:
Conservatives and liberals both want to return to the 50s. Liberals want to work there and conservatives want to live there.
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Quote of the moment
the GOP has morphed from a party that reveres limited government to a party that is girlishly infatuated with executive authority.
via Althouse
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The ongoing Beltline scam
Atlanta functions as a collective conspiracy of real estate developers, but even so , this is a bit much
Beltline park plan a mystery
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Fulton County Commissioner Emma Darnell, who represents the area, said her constituents repeatedly ask for updates on the park. She’s at a loss to offer specific information, even though she serves on the boards of the city’s development arm, Atlanta Development Authority, and the city’s entity that’s overseeing Beltline planning, Atlanta Beltline Inc.“The No. 1 interest of folks in the area near and around the quarry is what’s going on,” Darnell said. “That’s the big concern right now. Talk to anyone at random in those neighborhoods and they don’t have a clue as to what’s going on. The city of Atlanta should be able to answer all those questions.”
Truth is, all that’s certain at this point is that the park is supposed to become a regional attraction, much like Piedmont Park, Atlantic Station and Centennial Olympic Park. Most of the Beltline will be paid for with a projected $1.7 billion in future property taxes collected by three local entities — Atlanta City Council, the Atlanta school board and Fulton County’s Board of Commissioners.
Somehow we knew in 2006 how people will want to live 2026, even though in 2007 we don’t know what’s going on. We also know that they’ll want to pay for it then too. Why on earth do people think something that complex and far off is knowable (answer, because they’re not spending their own money). It’s the real estate version of Iraq really. At least that dealt with present day people.
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Infuriating comments
From this CNN.com article
Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, for example, is a sponsor of a bill that would call for troops to come home in 180 days and allow for a minimum number of forces to be left behind to hunt down terrorists and train Iraqi security forces.
“Read the Constitution,” Boxer told her colleagues last week. “The Congress has the power to declare war. And on multiple occasions, we used our power to end conflicts.”
This idea is coming to her now? It’s nauseating how we elect these people. There are countless acts of courage and kindness that happen when the cameras aren’t running, but as soon as they start everyone puts their head down and genuflects to the conventional wisdom. Congress gives war making authority to the president, who of course was only enforcing UN resolutions. All to avoid criticism or losing a job, which very few of them need.
That’s an odd thing about American; risk taking is private. That’s good I suppose.
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An odd parallel
Has anyone noticed that the descriptions of Barack Obama are similar to the descriptions of George Bush in 1999 and early 2000? The whole people-person, good listener, polite meme that’s been going around the Blogsphere lately was said about Bush as well.
Maybe we’re better off with massive egos who care far too much about their legacy (and Newt’s running in 08!). Food for thought.
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Government temerity
From this CNN article
The bill would bar companies from future lease sales unless they agree to renegotiate flawed leases issued in 1998-99 for deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
Because of a government error, the current leases do not contain a trigger for royalties if prices soared, as they have in recent years. As a result, the companies have avoided paying $1 billion in royalties so far and stand to avoid an additional $9 billion over the life of the leases, the Interior Department says.
Isn’t that why one signs a lease, to lock in a price? All government contracting is shady, but to pretend that anyone is owed anything is ridiculous. All the more reason to auction off the drilling rights and be done with it.