Entries
Looking for the Exits
img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-99139" title="boehner obama" src="/files/wxrimport/2011-07/boehner-obama.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="280" />D'Amboise's Change of Mind on Changing Climate
img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-99133" title="Scott D'Amboise (2)" src="/files/wxrimport/2011-07/scott-damboise-21.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="280" /> In a debate with opponent Michael Michaud during his 2006 campaign to represent Maine’s 2nd District in Congress, D’Amboise agreed with …The Case to Raise the Debt Ceiling in 58 Seconds
Courtesy of Jonathan Chait I learn that Frum Forum contributor Douglas Holtz-Eakin has been making a series of short YouTube videos about economic policy.The most popular video (16,659 views compared to the runner up at 790 views) has Holtz-Eakin in front of a white board explaining why the …The GOP is Not Blameless in a Default
I wonder if Republicans understand that voters are not inclined to be forgiving to the party that toys with financial apocalypse. Thursday evening, I spent some time with a friend who doesn't follow politics particularly closely. She is married, has a house and kids, and runs her own business. She …Introducing: Joan of Bachmann Watch
The Tea Party has discarded Sarah Palin in favor of a new icon: Michele Bachmann. img class="size-full wp-image-99107 aligncenter" title="daughter of liberty" src="/files/wxrimport/2011-07/daughter-of-liberty.jpg" alt="" width="390" height="520" />Is Threatening to Kill the President Still Illegal?
img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-99102" title="secet service" src="/files/wxrimport/2011-07/secet-service.jpg" alt="" width="420" height="180" />Worried About Freedom? Worry About Ecuador
img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-99094" title="Jail" src="/files/wxrimport/2011-07/jail.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="260" />Jim DeMint's Nation-Wrecking Fantasy
NRO has a report on the Republican members of Congress willing to force default in order to get a Senate vote on the Balanced Budget Amendment. In the Senate, DeMint is also counting noses, hoping to stir an eleventh-hour movement. Conservative voters, he says, will lose faith in the …Long Term Unemployment by State
The WSJ has a powerful, depressing interactive chart of long-term unemployment. Nation-wide, more than 25% of the unemployed have been out of work for more than a year. But in hard-hit states like California, Georgia, South Carolina, and Michigan, the proportion jumps to over 33%. See …D'Amboise Disavows Fave Radio Crazy
In his pursuit of Olympia Snowe’s Senate seat, Tea Partier Scott D’Amboise is seeking as much media attention as possible. One outlet that has given him considerable airtime, four interviews in the last year, is the Monticello, ME-based “Aroostook Watchmen” radio show. Steve Martin, host of …
Journalism for Skeptics
This may be a good week to recall Otto von Bismarck's first rule of journalism: "Nothing should be taken as true until it has been officially denied ."Heritage: Default is Better then Compromise
Ed Feulner in an unusual signed personal statement today urges Republicans to force the country into default unless President Obama yields on the outermost conservative demands. In the process, he equates President Obama and the Democrats to the Japanese militarists who bombed Pearl Harbor. I …
Just Lift the Debt Ceiling!
Larry Kudlow and The New Republic like the Gang of Six plan. Keith Hennessey does not . Obviously some people here are kidding themselves. And isn't that just inevitable when plans are being cobbled together by weary legislators working long hours in a summer heatwave? It's only asking …Time is Running Out
Yesterday evening and last night something important in the debt ceiling discussion happened: many members of both the House and Senate moved from “worried” to “scared.” This is good news, of a sort. It further confirms our judgment that the United States will not default on its sovereign …
Want to Fight Federal Over-reach? Start Here
When the House of Representatives last week voted for the “BULB Act”—a proposal its sponsors said would lift a coming federal ban on incandescent light bulbs—plenty of Tea Party supporters and others rejoiced at a major victory for limited government. Plenty of others, it's true, had fair …
Government Spending: Better Than No Spending
In my column for The Week , I write about how even wasteful government spending is better then no spending at all: Government spending is often wasteful. But it's still spending. When the Department of Waste, Fraud & Abuse buys toothpicks for the office cafeteria, that money is …Winners From a Cheaper Dollar
My Marketplace commentary broadcast today celebrates the US export boom. An economy as big as the U.S. cannot export its way out of recession. But the export surge does contain promising signals of the U.S. economy of tomorrow. The U.S. is increasing its exports to China faster than to any …
Can Dulles Airport Get More Inconvenient? Yes.
Really, I dont understand this: having agreed to spend $8 billion to dig a subway all the way out to Dulles Airport, Virginia authorities won't spend the final $300 million necessary to make the subway usable. Instead of emerging inside the airport, the Dulles subway will emerge outside - …
What Scott D'Amboise Told FrumForum
A number of people have requested to know the context of the quotes from Scott D’Amboise. Originally, we were asking him about some endorsements he received – but he said something interesting about Obama’s religion, so we conducted a follow-up interview to focus on that comment. Here are …