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- Despite a favorable new CBO score and independent analysis demonstrating the Senate health-care reform bill's costs savings, the debate over controversial elements of the legislation has finally begun in the hallowed upper house of Congress. In light of this, it's worth considering the implications of an Urban Institute study that recommends triggering a strong public option down the road, regardless of whether a strong/weak public option is included in the final legislation.
- I've never agreed with the Obama administration's "look forward, not back" approach, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee report on how the Bush administration allowed Osama bin Laden to escape at Tora Bora in December 2001 is a good illustration why coming to grips with what happened to this country during the previous presidential administration is so important. The Bush administration decided that giving up on pursuing the man behind 9/11 was important because starting an unnecessary, costly, and illegal war was the best way to start the process of driving the United States into a ditch.
- Like Matt Yglesias, I am less interested in the latest climate change non-scandal than I am in what the purpose of this alleged climate change conspiracy is. What is motivating thousands of scientists, apparently working in concert, to deliberately create false evidence of global warming? What motivates the politicians, activists and interest groups who are running with this evidence? Is it the prerequisite for the UN takeover of the world? State control of the economy? The imposition of a PC regime that will control your thoughts? A little help here, please.
- It would seem that there are two ways of approaching the subject of assessing Barack Obama's first year in office. One is to note that despite the current mood of the country, Obama has accomplished a good deal during the first year of his administration. The other is to note that despite these accomplishments, there is the palpable sense that the enthusiasm that accompanied Obama's election and inauguration has dissipated, if not completely evaporated. Regardless, presidential legacies are written in the future, of which Paul Krugman offers a probable prognosis: years of "new normal" high unemployment and total political deadlock.
- Holiday Leftovers: It's difficult to reconcile the Democrats' alleged enthusiasm gap with the Democrats' fundraising advantage; 45 percent of Americans don't understand cause and effect, economics; I still don't understand why Republicans don't spend their time attacking actual socialists in government; and surely the newspaper crisis explains The Washington Times' regretful decision to take money from bigoted lunatics.
--Mori Dinauer
