Ezra rails against the executive compensation limits scam:
Limits to executive compensation are a feel-good provision with little real world relevance or impact, and while it would be nice to have them in the bill, no one should be fooled into thinking them a high-level priority, nor believing that a compromise where compensation limits feature as a key Democratic boast suggests anything other than a total collapse in the negotiations.
Jason Malloy counters Charles Murray’s suggestion that we "stop this business of the B.A."
Greenwald points out a doozy.
The rigging of the state’s political process is now complete. I have to say this glimpse into the corrupt, secretive and punitive potential of a McCain presidency is truly chilling.
Dana Goldstein summarizes a key point from The Guttmacher Institute’s new report(pdf) on abortion in America:
The abortion rate is currently at its lowest since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. Most of the change is due to declining abortion rates among women aged 20 to 24 since 1989. Experts disagree on the cause of this shift, with some pointing toward easier access to contraceptives, and others citing state laws that require parental notification for minors’ abortions.
B. R. Myers, who teaches North Korean studies at Korea University in South Korea, speculates on what will happen if Kim Jong Il kicks it:
The Dear Leader’s death will elicit much the same sort of hysteria that followed his father’s passing. The wails will derive less from genuine grief than from fear and uncertainty, just as many South Koreans wept after Park Chung Hee’s assassination simply because they could not imagine national life without him. Whoever takes over, whether he is of Kim’s family or not, must at least be seen as bearing Kim’s seal of approval. Should the Dear Leader fail to anoint a successor in his lifetime, the regime will just have to pretend that he did; various statements to that effect will be faked up and put into print. Stalin resorted to similar deceptions to legitimize his own rule.
This will not be all. As happened in 1994, the propaganda apparatus must play on the masses’ xenophobia in order to rally them around the new leader. In all likelihood, the regime will sharply ratchet up the level of tension with Washington, the better to tout the inevitable American plea for negotiations as a waving of the white flag. (Washington’s eschewal of a military solution to the nuclear standoff is always mocked in the North as proof of Yankee cowardice.) But we can expect plenty of provocations even if Kim Jong Il stays alive; a “military first” leader who is no longer fit to visit army bases or review parades has to find other, more dangerous ways of conveying strength and toughness. In short, we should be thinking less about the transition of North Korean power, and more about the worldview that Kim and all his potential successors have in common.
A reader writes:
I just finished reading "The Dark Side" and one of the things that struck me the most was the fact that so many of the people involved in condoning and justifying torture in the administration were devout Christians. And yet few if any of these people, up to and including the Christian-in-Chief, seem to have had any hesitation or misgivings about these practices.Correct me if I am wrong; but these are the same people who claim that the example of this 1st Century Pacifist who was himself tortured to death is the guiding lite in their lives. I don’t get it.
Me neither. Torture is for Christians an absolute non-negotiable. But when you believe that you are on a mission from God, then it can be easy to convince yourself that you are allowed to commit evil in the defense of good. This is an ancient moral dilemma. But it is always also new.
Worth keeping them in the public eye until she explains every single one of them.
A reader writes:
A basic concept underpinning the current bail out proposals seems to be the government purchase of these distressed mortgage-related assets. This seems reasonable on the surface. My concern is how these distressed assets will be priced. In the case of Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs), I don’t believe an accurate valuation is even possible right now. (IMHO) My recommendation would be to provide "rescue" funds to these banks based on an initial guestimate of value, and then do a future "true-up" of payments once the housing market stabilizes and a better valuation of these assets is possible. We simply should not (can not afford to) overpay these bankers for these assets. This is their mess.
This is not my area of expertise but this sounds like a good idea to me.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown gives his rallying keynote speech to party supporters this afternoon at the Labour party conference on September 23, 2008 in Manchester, England. Amid continued speculation about Brown’s leadership he asserted his authority and told of his vision for the future ‘a Britain of fair chances for all and fair rules applied to all’. By Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images.
The Dish 