WSJ: Several Senate Democrats pulling back their support.
Nice.
Updates from March, 2009 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Jehuda
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Jehuda
I think I get it now: piss off as many foreign governments as you can, in the simplest way possible. Last week it was the Brits, this time it’s the Chinese.
MORE: The Chinese embassy issued a statement.
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Jehuda
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Jehuda
Cartel activity reported in Houston and “plaguing” Atlanta.
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Jehuda
Michael Goodwin: Obama’s Search for an Enemy.
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Jehuda
New Zealand’s chief censor wants to jail parents who break video game age limits.
Via GamePolitics.
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Jehuda
Has Obama spread himself too thin? “Obama has proposed so many mega-programs in so brief a span, you have to wonder if he has the political superpowers required to shepherd them all past the legislative meat grinder.” Hmm. I guess this poster I kept seeing throughout L.A. last year was not a very accurate depiction.
Meanwhile, the GOP prepares for escalation. Good, but shouldn’t they begin to fight before they escalate? I know. I’m harsh, but come on guys: oppose.
RELATED (sort of): Low Executive Power: Obama’s new enemy: fatigue. Lord, have mercy. We got us a whiner? Well, fatigue doesn’t fight back, like Rush does – or vote, like the investor class – so why not add it to the enemies list? Can’t hurt. Rahm Emanuel will then take that fatigue and “freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it” and the President will feel much better. By then, they’ll have a new excuse, I’m sure.
Sigh. It’s going to be a looong four years.
MORE: Geithner must be tired. Hopefully he won’t forget to pay his taxes next month…
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Jehuda
Obama is not that into you, but if you read this blog with any frequency, you had already taken note of that.
Odds are he thinks that the investor class is composed of rich people only.
(Via Instapundit)
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Jehuda
Clenched Fists Around The World: Iran test-fires a new missile. Is North Korea next?
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Jehuda
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Jehuda
WaPo: Parallels between Obama and Bush.
Via The Corner.
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Jehuda
Clive Crook: Obama is no centrist.
Well, duh. Does anyone still believe that Obama is not a Leftie?
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Jehuda
So Watchmen – as expected – is in the #1 slot, but it didn’t make as much money as some were projecting. Its box office estimates actually dropped as the weekend progressed.
Between its marathon-like length and the thickness of the subject matter; and the fact that the movie’s ending is different from that of the comic book (sacrilege to the most extreme fans – and certainly disappointing to a more mainstream Watchmen
reader like me), I guess less and less mainstream crowds and less and less fanboys/girls opted for seeing it, too.
Meanwhile, Tyler Perry’s new Madea installment, Taken, Slumdog, and – gulp – Paul Blart (???!!!) rounded up the Top 5.
Steve Mason has the figures and analysis. Funny how Watchmen could end up making domestically as much as Blart, which is shaping up to be a hit comedy in the States by anyone’s standards, but likely cost 20% of Watchmen‘s budget, if not less. It’s a tough business, show business.
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Jehuda
Uh-oh: THR: Pic tracking under 300, Zack Snyder’s last film.
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Jehuda
Fred Barnes: “The right is already in full anti-Obama mode. But attracting centrists and independents is something Republicans can’t pull off on their own. Now they are getting help.”
Rasmussen might agree: Obama’s negatives have steadily risen since the Inauguration. His positives have not seen a similar drop, but they are dropping.
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Jehuda
Why are Left-wing bloggers so threatened by the concept of Galtism? If it’s really so stupid and whacked out an idea, then it can’t possibly derail any great statist redistributive designs, right? Or can it? (yuk, yuk) You mean Obama’s big plans all depend on acquiescence and assent to the state’s agenda? Where’s the liberalism in that? Related: A round up of “Going John Galt” reactions from across the blogosphere. (Via Instapundit)
What is most amusing about many Galtism opponents is that they seem convinced that people who make more than $200,000 a year are rich. Rich is someone who possesses great wealth, like Barbra Streisand, Bill Gates, or George Soros. An attorney or a dentist who earn $200K a year have to work for years (in school and apprenticeships) just to merely deserve such compensation, and then they have to work to actually earn it.
Such professionals are rich in experience and responsibilities. But they are not rich. They are the “working affluent”. If you think they make too much money, cap their wages, why don’t you? (or tax them more).
Just don’t complaint if dental work and legal services seem scant or shoddy soon after. For better or worse, most people need incentives to excel. If you think that makes them evil, fine. But if you are so good, then pick up your ass and go to dental school and law school so you can fill the void. After all, it’s for the greater good!
Get thee to the books! Neutralize John Galt? Yes, you can!
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Jehuda
Heretics! I mean, why so objective all of a sudden?
[W]hile his personal popularity remains high, some economists and lawmakers are beginning to question whether Obama’s agenda of increased government activism is helping, or hurting, by sowing uncertainty among businesses, investors and consumers that could prolong the recession.
Although the administration likes to say it “inherited” the recession and trillion-dollar deficits, the economic wreckage has worsened on Obama’s still-young watch.
Every day, the economy is becoming more and more an Obama economy.
And we have the AP in part to thank for that. Where were the objective and detached assessments of Obama during the campaign, AP? You know? Journalism?
UPDATE: Maybe it’s because he’s now channeling Dick Cheney AND Rahm Emanuel: Obama in his latest radio address urges the country to not let a great crisis go to waste.
MORE: And yet, Drudge says the Sunday NYT will have the President refusing to assure us that the economy will grow again by the end of the year. Sounds like a great way to kickstart the week.
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Jehuda
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Jehuda
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Jehuda
Yervand Kochar: The Death of Independent Film.
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Jehuda
Ilya Somin also misses Bubba, but he’s right to remind us of one very important point:
There is no need to romanticize Clinton. Government growth was constrained on his watch in part because his worst instincts were checked by a Republican Congress, and he in turn checked theirs. As a general rule, divided government leads to limited government.
Big time…
(H/T: Instapundit)
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Jehuda
Probabaly never, not with that budget plan of his that is so focused on universal healthcare, a carbon tax, and universal college access:
[T]he list of causes of the collapse of the financial system does not include the absence of universal health care, let alone of computerized medical records. Nor the absence of an industry-killing cap-and-trade carbon levy. Nor the lack of college graduates. Indeed, one could perversely make the case that, if anything, the proliferation of overeducated, Gucci-wearing, smart-ass MBAs inventing ever more sophisticated and opaque mathematical models and debt instruments helped get us into this credit catastrophe in the first place.
Indeed. Looks like Obama is barking up the wrong tree.
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Jehuda
Way ahead of you buddy: Chavez calls on Obama to follow path of socialism.
Patience, Hugo. He’s working on it!
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Jehuda
Anne Thompson wonders. Sounds like my own expectations weren’t so far off the mark.
It’s hard to go by the reviews. The few critics I’ve read don’t seem quite to get it, which I don’t mean as a slight at all. It is a complicated story and often a very violent one. Not that Zack Snyder is unable to adapt such a story, but it just might not have enough broad appeal as a film to make Iron Man
or Dark Knight-level box office.
Let’s see what happens once the fanboys and fangirls have their fill (many will probably see it in the theater more than once).
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Jehuda
I’ll have it in all available flavors. So, is President Obama Dr. Utopia? (via Instapundit). At a particular level, it’s hard to distinguish one from the other. I don’t mean to call Obama a Snake Oil Salesman. That’s not my point. But the peddling of silver bullet “change and hope” during the campaign to sanitize his statist plans for general comsumption comes pretty close to the cartoon character.
And I love that the arm of the ogre-like State is blue…specifically the shade of light blue used so prominently by the Obama campaign
. Funny how John Q. Public wants to read Dr. Utopia’s contract first, too, unlike our legislators who voted for the Stimu-pork bill. Heh-heh! Awfully prescient, that cartoon.
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Jehuda
Steven Stark: Obama’s First Real Political Test.
I was betting it would center around his ambitious environmentalist policy, but I think Stark could be right.
Via Realclearpolitics.
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Jehuda
More on British disappointment with Obama: There was never any magic, Professor Althouse (via Instapundit). It was all Imagineering, and the campaign was an MSM-fueled Disneyland ride. Alas, Oba-melot was not to be. It was but a dream. If you are not yet convinced, consider: would an Oba-melot ever conjure an enemies list?
I can’t blame her for wanting to believe in Oba-magic. I wanted to believe, but I voted for McCain because there were just too many signs pointing to Obama being no moderate. Even after Obama was inaugurated, I was still hoping that the whole bi-partisanship song was on the level, but then it became obvious it was all for show. By now, there should be no doubt that the concept of himself our President successfully sold during the campaign turned to be - as I’ve said before - merely form, not substance.
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Jehuda
Ben Shapiro: Hollywood’s Tax Cut Hypocrisy.
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Jehuda
Most definitely. First the President does it, now (via Dan Riehl) even the First Lady is pissing the Brits off.
More on our new “smart diplomacy” here.
UPDATE: Wow. I thought the Obamas were supposed to be classy…More on why Obama doesn’t look to British eyes like the most thoughtful President. I hope the DVD’s were at least Blu-Ray.
ANOTHER UPDATE: the First Lady’s infamous Princeton thesis gets deconstructed on the pages of the London Telegraph.
MORE: Is this why the President returned the Churchill bust to the UK?
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Jehuda
Your used games in exchange for an Amazon gift card? I’m in! Details here.
The WSJ has more from the business angle.
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Jehuda
Well, Politico calls it his safety net, but I think we’re both right: “President Barack Obama doesn’t go anywhere without his TelePrompter.”
Via Drudge.
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Jehuda
According to John Nolte.
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Jehuda
The Wrap: How Tribune’s Bankruptcy Will Ripple Through the TV Business.
Bummer…
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Jehuda
THR: Layoff numbers in media are mild compared to other industries.
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Jehuda
Bait and Switch: What Obama once promised, and what he’s delivering.
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RCP: Revolt of the Moderates.
Meanwhile, the AP sees “fierce opposition” to Obama’s tax hike plans.
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Jehuda
Nate Silver says in about 18 months from now…just in time for the 2010 elections.
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Jehuda
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Jehuda
Over 2 decades in development. True hell.
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Jehuda
Still little willingess from late night talk show hosts to make fun of The One.
