Lieberman deserves a lot of credit for DADT repeal today
Reid, Pelosi, the Republicans who helped break McCain's filibuster, Secretary Gates, the military leadership, and Obama too, all made this happen. But Lieberman turned out to be the force needed to get repeal passed at the end of the day. Who'd have guessed? A great day for civil rights in the US.
DADT Repeal.
The House just passed a standalone bill to repeal DADT, which was expected; the bigger news is that Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) has now committed to voting for repeal, after she voted no last week over what she said were procedural issues. You never know with those two Maine senators, but if Snowe keeps her commitment, that gives DADT repeal 59 of the 60 votes needed to get past the Republican filibuster. Sens. Scott Brown (R-MA) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) are the key uncommitted senators at this point. via talkingpointsmemo.com If this is really all the farther away from repeal Read more…
In support of Obama and his cutting deals with Republicans
I know, I know, I'm always defending Obama. But I don't think this deal is as bad as it initially sounds. From everything I've read, the biggest win for the Democrats is a 13 month extension of unemployment benefits. This is a big thing, and almost certainly would not have happened otherwise. But the other win: Democrats were trying to extend the tax cuts to people who earn less than $250,000, and that's part of the deal as well. The cost of those two victories was extending tax cuts to people who earn more than that, and a decrease in Read more…
I thought this was worth sharing …
via andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com
The NCAA, Film Festivals, and Economics
Imagine that you could run a business that relied on volunteer labor, was so popular it was worth many millions of dollars, and was largely tax free. Sounds illegal, but it's not. It's an accurate description of college football and college basketball programs. I have a bit of a hard time with the NCAA rules, and today's sanctions against USC are a good enough reason as any to post on this topic. With colleges serving as the de-facto farm teams for pro-basketball and pro-football, anyone who wants to play in the pros pretty much has to go through them to make Read more…
George H. W. Bush
via whitehouse.gov I finished a short biography of George HW Bush over the weekend (the book I read was by Timothy Naftali and it’s part of the American Presidents series). Bush was the first President in my presidential reading list who didn’t have a wealth of biographies to choose from–my hunch is some of these presidents will get harder and harder to read up on. HW was a major inspiration behind this whole project of mine. After seeing Oliver Stone’s W. (which I didn’t like), I thought Bush Sr. was by far the most interesting character. And Obama referenced him Read more…
U.S. To Be Hit By Massive Cyber Attack On Feb. 16. (But it’s all pretend.)
At least three times this year, the US government has held private versions of cyber wargames. This will be open to the press. CNN has agreed to record the event for broadcast later in the week. via politics.theatlantic.com That broadcast sounds better than a movie about the same topic. I’m there. Let’s just hope the producers can find a way for a computer plays Tic-Tac-Toe with itself as a climactic finish.
Best Picture at the Oscars goes RCV
But in the Best Picture category — which used to be listed in the middle of the Oscar ballot, but will now be in a separate, detachable section — voters will be asked to rank the nominees in order of preference, one through 10. Those ballots will then be tallied using the preferential system (for a full-blown explanation, click here) in which the film with the fewest Number One votes will be eliminated, and its votes redistributed based on the film listed second on those ballots. Eventually, one film will wind up with more than 50 percent of the vote, Read more…
Obama at the Republican retreat
via whitehouse.gov Politically interested bloggers have been posting this video all over the Internet, and I enjoyed it enough I’ve decided to follow suit. This particular one comes from whitehouse.gov and it unfortunately starts after the gracious welcome from the Republican leadership, which helped set the tone. There’s a lot to like in this video. I like Obama a lot. I think he’s sensible, direct, and not afraid to throw a couple of (polite) punches. I like the Republicans a lot. They, again politely, go after him on some big things–which is of course what the opposition party should do. Read more…
States Divided With Even Population
via pheedcontent.com I saw this map on James Fallows blog a few days ago but it keeps getting reposted elsewhere. It’s pretty interesting, really. The idea is to divide the US into 50 states, keeping population even between the states and trying to preserve boundaries where possible (Note that Missouri looks pretty much the same, and so does Washington). Matthew Yglesias noted while looking at the map that it would turn a lot of blue states red and a lot of red states blue. I think the idea of redrawing state borders is a fun thought-experiment. For example, what if Read more…
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