Two Harvard professors — John C. Coates from the Law School and David S. Scharfstein from the Business School — had an op-ed in the NYT yesterday in which they identified a basic design flaw in TARP. Their criticism is simple and cogent, and doesn’t require any background in economics to understand, yet it has [...]
Bush tries to convince world no plans for Iran war (Reuters 2/12/07): President George W. Bush is trying to convince the world he has no intention of invading Iran, but is running into skeptics who see U.S. charges that Iran is shipping bombs into Iraq as a step toward conflict. Having ordered two aircraft carriers [...]
Yesterday when I mocked Christopher Grey for using the phrase operational tempo, I was totally out of line. Put it down to failure of imagination. I simply failed to appreciate the full potential of this versatile, all-purpose workhorse of a phrase. (I think government spokesmen and women are required to say “latent potentialityâ€, but till [...]
The Matrix (1999): Neo looks at a cat as it walks past the doorway. He turns around again, and an identical looking cat. Neo: Woah, deja vu. Trinity: What did you just say? Neo: Nothing, uh, just had a little..deja vu. Trinity: What did you see? Cypher: What happened? Neo: A black cat went past [...]
Deja vu all over again. Ralph Nader voters, circa 2000: As Cobb sees it, progressive Democrats are better off voting for Nader, for several reasons. It will send a message to the Democratic Party that there are voters who want universal health care, public financing of election campaigns, and an end to corporate “personhood.” (Corporate [...]
No matter how many experienced and (formerly) well-respected people speak out against the Iraq war—and the planning that led up to said war—there’s always someone hanging around to paint each as an isolated kook who is in the grips of far-left hysteria. Richard Clarke? He’s just complaining to sell copies of his book! John Murtha? [...]
There are 100,000 troops trained, police, guard, special units, border patrol. There’s going to be 125,000 trained by the end of this year. Yes, we’re getting the job done. It’s hard work. Everybody knows it’s hard work, because there’s a determined enemy that’s trying to defeat us. — President George Bush, at the first Presidential [...]
It’s all William Rehnquist’s fault. By putting festive gold stripes on the arms of his judicial robe (as a homage to a Gilbert & Sullivan musical, no less!) he opened the door for the latest church/state/Alabama controversy…that is, the judge who decided to embroider the ten commandments onto his robe with gold thread: Circuit Judge [...]
George W. Bush – April 5, 2004: “[T]he intention is to make sure the deadline remains the same. I believe we can transfer authority by June 30th…We’re now in the process of deciding what the entity will look like to whom we will transfer sovereignty. But, no, the date remains firm. George W. Bush – [...]
From The San Francisco Chronicle, October 10 2004: The surging number of people who are “cutting the cord,” abandoning wired telephone lines for cellular phones, is suddenly presenting political pollsters with a vexing problem — the prospect that their surveys may be undercounting younger voters in this election who have decamped for a wireless lifestyle. [...]