Author: McQ

Which of those descriptions in the title would best describe your understanding of a Supreme Court Justice? If you wonder what President Obama wants in a Supreme Court Justice, take a look at this excerpt from his speech explaining why he couldn’t vote for Justice Roberts. He’s describing that 95% of the cases before the […]

It certainly seems like it. Reason magazine finds the current way the US is addressing the economic crises to be pretty familiar: The scenario was eerily familiar. A long real estate bubble that had expanded extra rapidly for the previous five years suddenly burst, and asset prices came crashing back down to earth. Banks and […]

Martin Feldstein, a professor of economics at Harvard University, president emeritus of the nonprofit National Bureau of Economic Research, and former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1982 to 1984 has concluded that the Waxman/Markey cap-and-trade legislation is a bad idea. He comes to that conclusion for a number of reasons. First, his […]

Remember the uproar during the 2004 presidential election about supposed voter disenfranchisement and voter intimidation that allegedly took place in Florida. Reports of blacks being stopped at police roadblocks and turned away from voting places? The Civil Rights Commission as well as numerous media outlets descended on the state in an attempt to validate the […]

While there is all sorts of silly criticism emerging on the right (including the pronunciation of her name and the fact that she likes certain latin foods), there is an emerging criticism which I think has some validity. Most of of focuses on a speech she delivered at UC Berkley in 2001 and published later […]

Sure sounds like it to me: A transcript of a secretly recorded phone call between the brother of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and U.S. Sen. Roland Burris was released in federal court today, a call in which Burris, then seeking the Senate seat, was recorded offering the Blagojevich campaign a campaign check. “I know I […]

Another emerging hallmark of Obama rhetoric are the startling inconsistencies to be found there. For instance, his speech at the National Archives where he invoked the founding documents as the keepers of our fundamental rights and values and condemned the previous administration for its egregious violations of those right and values. All of it sounded […]

During the Milblogger’s conference in Washington DC, I went to Arlington National Cemetery to watch the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It’s a ceremony that happens every half hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is a somber reminder of the sacrifice many have made in […]

I hesitate to call it bankruptcy when it is really a sham of a bankruptcy. In fact, it is the same sham that Chrysler has undergone: The government previously indicated that it planned to take at least 50 percent of the restructured company, and likely would take the right to name members to its board […]

David Axelrod, Obama’s senior adviser talking about the appointment of a new Supreme Court Justice and the Constitution: President Barack Obama began interviewing potential Supreme Court candidates Tuesday, while a senior White House official defended the president’s stated preference for a nominee who will give the powerless “a fair shake.” White House adviser David Axelrod […]

Is it too big to fail? Megan McArdle believes the possibility certainly exists (I mean was Arnie really in DC yesterday just to see the sights). Says McArdle: If the government does bail out the muni bond market, how should it go about things? The initial assumption is that they’ll only guarantee existing debt. Otherwise, […]

Because the fact you’ve been a responsible adult and paid your credit cards on time and have immaculate credit simply doesn’t matter once Congress gets involved in saving yet another victim class from itself: Credit cards have long been a very good deal for people who pay their bills on time and in full. Even […]

Although Herbert Hoover is rarely cited when one thinks of “immortal words”, these few paragraphs from Hoover (from James T. Flynn’s “The Roosevelt Myth”, HT: the Heritage Foundation) should certainly give you pause: In every single case before the rise of totalitarian governments there had been a period dominated by economic planners. Each of these […]

Bruce Bartlett gives you a different way of looking at the mess your political leaders, over a number of generations, have gotten us into and what it will cost, at a minimum, to fulfill the promises they’ve made over the decades. To summarize, we see that taxpayers are on the hook for Social Security and […]

Who is Obama lecturing here? President Barack Obama, calling current deficit spending “unsustainable,” warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries. “We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have […]

Why not just wrap us all up in bubble wrap and bottle feed us? “We like credit cards — they are valuable vehicles for many people,” said Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, the chairman of the Senate banking committee and author of the measure now being considered by the Senate. “It’s when these […]

Turbo Tax Tim Geithner tells us: Social Security’s annual surpluses of tax income over expenditures are expected to fall sharply this year and to stay about constant in 2010 because of the economic recession, and to rise only briefly before declining and turning to cash flow deficits beginning in 2016 that grow as the baby […]

One of the myths Democrats are going to try to continue to promote is that 95% of Americans are getting a tax cut. Of course that means they’re politically prohibited from raising income taxes. But that certainly doesn’t mean that they must refrain from other taxes and fees which will impact 100% of Americans and, […]

First we have the “car czar” threatening investors with audits and vilification, and now we have a report that a union was inappropriately involved in matters in which it should not have been included: Officials in the governor’s office say a politically powerful union may have had inappropriate influence over the Obama administration’s decision to […]

I‘m still amazed that many people who put their support behind Obama in the presidential election, are suddenly discovering things about him they don’t like. Really? Now they discover Obama is a class warrior? It comes as no surprise for those of us who took the time to assess where he came from and what […]

I am enjoying the spin on this – a $3.4 trillion dollar budget offset by $17 billion in “savings”. And what does the administration want you concentrating on? That pittance of a savings. Now I welcome any program eliminations and reductions, don’t get me wrong, but my goodness, $17 billion in relation to the spending […]

Here at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, we were able to hear from a very distinguished panel concerning the energy “debate”. I put the word “debate” in scare quotes because it seemed that the consensus of the panel was there really isn’t a productive debate going on. Roger Ballentine of the Progressive Policy Institute […]

One of the things I try to do is take a look at stories and decide whether or not there’s enough there to blog about it. And part of that has to do with corroboration. When I first saw the story about the Obama White House allegedly threatening a Chrysler stakeholder during negotiations that eventually […]

There’s some interesting stuff out there to read about the Chrysler bankruptcy, like people asking “why wasn’t this done in the beginning”? Simple answer – in the beginning there was no way to secure the UAW a majority stake in the company. Now, as Felix Salmon points out, that’s been accomplished: The broad outlines of […]

As you may or may not know, I just sent the last week touring the houses of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe – three of this nation’s founding fathers. So when I glanced through the following interview with Barack Obama I tried to picture any of these three men ever contemplating this question […]

I put economics in [“”] for a reason. And that has to do with the fact that there was little about the first 100 days which had much to do with economics and certainly wasn’t economical. Feast your eyes on this. It’s from the GOP. Check out the quote attached to the chart: Heritage also […]

As you’re seeing demonstrated in the machinations concerning GM and Chrysler, not to mention the attempt to pass the card check legislation, unions are a favored constituency within the Obama administration. And it gets even better: The Obama administration, which has boasted about its efforts to make government more transparent, is rolling back rules requiring […]

You know, when you’re in DC it seems such a calm and beautiful place, and yet, the cynical machinations of politicians continue unabated. We now have Nancy Pelosi under fire for essentially sanctioning the “advanced interrogation techiniques” by not speaking up against them or opposing them when she was briefed about their use many years […]

USA Today says the public sees Obama’s first 100 days as a “strong opening”. But when you get in the number of the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, it’s not quite as strong an opening as you might expect: Now, 56% say he has done an “excellent” or “good” job as president vs. 20% who rate him […]

We’re known here at this blog for being adamant about denouncing plans which appease terrorists. It’s a absolute no-win situation for the appeaser. Pakistan is now in the middle of learning that hard lesson: Pakistan’s strategy of trying to appease Taliban militants is showing signs of backfiring, as extremists move within 60 miles of the […]