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- It's all too predictable that economic bad times lend themselves to finding scapegoats, so I'm not surprised that David Brooks has decided to target public employees and their pension plans that are bankrupting state governments. Obviously, they're not. Obviously, pensions are a long-term problem. And obviously, some pension plans are run better than others. But if you believe that government is an illegitimate racket dedicated to stealing money from the productive members of society and redistributing it to the shiftless, the notion that "good government" is something to strive toward is simply not going to occur to you.
- That Jonathan Chait is predicting House Republicans will impeach Barack Obama is beside the point. I think the question is, given how much more right-wing congressional Republicans will be in the future, what mechanisms, if any, exist to stop something as drastic as impeachment? If impeachment starts attracting a following in the 112th Congress and Republicans hold the majority, it will test the leadership -- John Boehner, who presumably remembers how well impeachment went last time around -- and its ability to direct its caucus.
- Jonathan Bernstein on earmarks: "Let's try a household example: say that you give your kid $10 a week, and tell her she has to buy milk on Tuesday and an apple on Thursday. Then, the next week, you give her $10, without telling her how to spend it. Congratulations: you've eliminated earmarks! Feeling richer yet?" And of course this is even before you consider how marginal an effect earmarks have on the total budget picture or how "bringing home the bacon" is part and parcel with representative democracy.
- Remainders: I'd just like to point out that a comedian who talks about the news challenges Republican hypocrisy more than straight journalists ever do, and that's not a good thing; Marc Ambinder should really be on the U.S. Military beat instead of the White House Press Corps; we're all glad the Chilean miners are being safely rescued, but it's in poor taste to use the occasion to gloat about American greatness; conservatives agree that disenfranchising public employees is the wave of the future; and why on Earth is 60 Minutes interviewing bigoted right-wing lunatics?
--Mori Dinauer
