Archive for March, 2009
Shades of Florida
So there’s certain to be a recanvas (same thing as a recount but they call it a recanvas in NYS) in NY-20. This sort of thing is usually quite orderly in NYS because of the fact that each county has two election commissioners, one Democrat and one Republican. But this one could be so close [...]
March 31, 2009
· 
Angry DougJ · 
48 Comments
Posted in: Politics
Makers and takers
Sometimes Sully’s more Randian than Burkean: The new cultural divide will not be on guns, gays and God. It will be between the makers and the takers, the producers of wealth and the recipients of redistribution. And it will be about tempering the over-reach that the Democrats will be unable to resist. (A) Why not [...]
March 31, 2009
· Angry DougJ · 97 Comments
Posted in: Burkean bells
Following NY-20
If you want to follow the results in NY-20, I recommend comparing the incoming county-by-county results from here with the county-by-county results of the 2006 election (in which Gillibrand defeated John Sweeney by 6 points). Though to some extent it may be possible to get a feel from raw totals, since the results didn’t vary [...]
March 31, 2009
· Angry DougJ · 66 Comments
Posted in: Politics
Re: special election in NY
To follow up on John’s earlier post on the special election in NY-20, my opinion is that Larison is partly but not completely right. He writes: But if Murphy does win it will mean that an out-of-state transplant made up a 20-point deficit against a fixture of regional politics in less than six weeks, and [...]
March 31, 2009
· Angry DougJ · 21 Comments
Posted in: Politics
Special Election in NY
Not to step on DougJ’s toes, but Daniel Larison has some interesting thoughts on the special election between Tedisco and Murphy: Taken in isolation, this outcome wouldn’t matter much. But if Murphy does win it will mean that an out-of-state transplant made up a 20-point deficit against a fixture of regional politics in less than [...]
March 31, 2009
· John Cole · 32 Comments
Posted in: Excellent Links, Politics
Site Changes
Tomorrow the PJ Ads come down, so you all can finally stop complaining about that. I have thrown up the Amazon link below to the left, and I am working on getting into a blogads network and dealing with the impossible feat of activating a google adsense account. Expect things to look a little funny [...]
March 31, 2009
· John Cole · 139 Comments
Posted in: Site Maintenance
Stop Blaming It On The CRA
More testimony and evidence that the CRA is not to blame for the current crisis: Amid the ongoing debate over mortgage lending reform, a top federal regulator took a seat before Congress last week and debunked the myth — popular among conservatives — that a law encouraging loans to low-income communities has been largely responsible [...]
March 31, 2009
· John Cole · 82 Comments
Posted in: Domestic Affairs, Politics, Republican Stupidity
Credit Card Reform
This is surprising: In a blow to financial firms, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday signed off on legislation that seeks to ban abusive credit-card practices. While consumer groups and key Democrats lauded the committee’s move, the 12-to-11 vote in favor of the controversial bill was very narrow. Thus, the committee’s chairman, Sen. Christopher [...]
March 31, 2009
· John Cole · 40 Comments
Posted in: Domestic Affairs
Sometimes you get a bad king
You all know the joke (repeated in “Annie Hall”) about the two old ladies at the diner, where one says “The food here is terrible, I can barely eat it” and the other says “I agree, and the portions are so small!” That’s exactly how I feel about the New York Times. The paper can [...]
March 31, 2009
· Angry DougJ · 26 Comments
Posted in: Media, Other
Defining normal
I don’t find this especially offensive, but it is interesting to hear Michael Barone define normal (via WM): This is similar but not identical to a point I’ve often made: that the Republican Party is the party of people who are considered, by themselves and by others, as normal Americans—Northern white Protestants in the 19th [...]
March 31, 2009
· Angry DougJ · 173 Comments
Posted in: Media
Random historical note
Some of my best friends are from the small West Indian nation of Guyana (although Guyana is on the South American continent, its history and culture are much closer to that of Trinidad than of, say, Brazil) and they emailed me the obituary of Janet Jagan, a woman from Chicago who became president of Guyana [...]
March 31, 2009
· Angry DougJ · 18 Comments
Posted in: Other
That Is Depressing
In an odd turn of events, a David Brooks column that I almost completely agree with: There are many experts who think that the whole restructuring strategy is misbegotten. These experts think that costs are not the real problem. The real problem is the product. The cars are not good enough. The management is insular. [...]
March 31, 2009
· John Cole · 205 Comments
Posted in: Domestic Affairs
Earth hour
I don’t have much of an opinion about Earth Hour, but I have to say that the Big Hollywood reaction to it puts the Red State reaction to shame: One Billion Turn Out Lights to Highlight Threat from Climate Change. When Lights Return, One Million Infidels Found Killed by Terrorists OK, so if you were [...]
March 30, 2009
· Angry DougJ · 62 Comments
Posted in: I Read These Morons So You Don't Have To
Dayana does Gitmo
Miss Universe, Dayana Mendoza, visited Gitmo last week and here’s what she reported: We arrived in Gitmo on Friday and stared going around the town, everybody knew Crystle and I were coming so the first thing we did was attend a big lunch and then we visited one of the bars they have in the [...]
March 30, 2009
· Angry DougJ · 45 Comments
Posted in: Humor
Lou Dobbs Is Giving Me Whiplash
First, he is mad because Obama “fired” Wagoner. Then he weeps for the future of capitalism with the government involved like this. Then he gets mad because Obama doesn’t know how to handle this crisis and isn’t doing more. Then he is mad because Obama didn’t fire the head of the UAW. And then he [...]
March 30, 2009
· John Cole · 215 Comments
Posted in: Media, Politics
