Thursday, May 13, 2010

EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW FROM HARVARD AND YALE: 10,000 graduates? Little wonder the U.S. is in deep kim chee.

Read it all; then follow the link.
ONN - the Obama News Network. Well, CNN and MSNBC aren’t working.
IS IT JOBS, or is it the economy? I don’t know that there’s much difference ... what struck me was this comment: “My shops are going gang-busters, then again I’m seeing breeds of cars I have rarely seen before entering for ‘Just make it last for another year’ work.”
“LESBIAN” IS NOW A BAD WORD? Ann Althouse on Andrew Sullivan on Elena Kagan's "emotional orientation." The post is hilarious; the comments more so.

My favorite:
Using "gender" to distinguish between male and female creatures is almost exclusively a mark of being undereducated or overcredentialed (which in my experience often overlaps).
Translation: “undereducated and overcredentialed” = politically correct.
SHORT SELLERS IN CONGRESS: another lesson in financial hypocrisy.
YOUR 401(K) a federal mutual fund? “Don't think Washington would never wreck private pensions in the name of the collective good. It happened in Argentina, and if the same group that's determined to take over the U.S. health care system stays in power long enough, it could happen here.”

Which is why November 2, 2010 is so important.

My thoughts here.
OFFICIAL WASHINGTON has not learned the lesson of Scott Brown.

Link from Instapundit.
THEM'S FIGHTIN’ WORDS ...



Link from Hot Air is here. At no extra cost, a Megyn Kelly interview with Sarah Palin.
THE JUDGE IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT. Megan McArdle comments on the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.

I do think that David Brooks is onto something when he notes that her relentless careerism, her pitch-perfect blandness, are a little creepy.
I’m inclined to agree with McArdle in the sense that for Kagan, there’s no ‘there’ there - no core values, no convictions, no opinions, no passion; nothing except self-advancement .Do we really want people in power whose only reason for being in power is self-aggrandizement (cf. Charlie Crist)?

The reference to David Brooks (Organization Kids) is here.
CHRIS STIREWALT on the pending financial reform bill [third item].

Democrats defeated a financial reform amendment that would have put $145 billion bailout recipients Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac off the dole within five years, arguing that it was too risky to do anything to create uncertainty in the housing market until later on.

But government reform is like having kids. It’s never the right time, so you might as well get on with it.

Senators can call their pending bill many things, but as Mr. McCain said yesterday, they should not dare call it reform of the financial system.”
Corruption Business as usual.
WAS THE GULF OIL SPILL a regulatory failure?

Halliburton executive Tim Probert testified that his company hadn't placed a final cement plug within the well when the blowout occurred. Such plugs, designed to keep gas from escaping up the pipe, are normally put in before heavy drilling fluid known as "mud" is removed, In this case, mud was removed before a final plug was placed.

A rig worker ... said permission had been sought from the MMS [Minerals Management Service, a government requlatory agency] to do the procedures in the unusual order, withdrawing mud before placing the final cement plug. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar declined to comment on whether the MMS, part of his department, had given such permission.
Hmm.
JEFF JACOBY: Who decides what marriage means?
CASH FOR CAULKERS: for-profit politics in action.

Al Gore acolyte Cathy Zoi, the Energy Department official in charge of energy efficiency, has testified in favor of the caulkers bill, which the House passed last week. She would administer it if it became law and is married to an executive at a window company that has pushed for this legislation. Zoi, formerly chief executive officer of the Gore-initiated Alliance for Climate Protection, also owns stock options in Serious Windows.
When government injects itself into the economy, opportunities for cronyism come with the territory. After all, it’s only your money.
IF I WERE LOS ANGELES, I’d be more worried about Arizona boycotting me.
ECONOMICS 101: Deficits, Debt and Unfunded Liabilities.





Link via Hot Air.
MICHAEL BARONE on the real-life faculty lounge. It isn’t pretty.
BIDEN: Kagan was right to discriminate against the military at Harvard.

“All during that period, she has reached out to veterans in the law school, she has been at promotions ceremonies, she’s recognized veterans coming to the law school. So this is not a single bit of anti-military bias. She does think, and I agree with her, that the don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy is a very bad policy.”
Typical of the left: if they don’t agree with a law, then it’s right and proper to ignore it.
CONGRESS SEEKS TO EXPAND ACCESS to women's restrooms in Federal buildings. Not that this isn’t worth doing, but ... is it really worth holding Congressional hearings over?

On the other hand, they're not passing bills they haven't read.