Month: December 2008

Obama drops his windfall profits tax proposal? Yay!

One small reason for hope in Iraq.

Don’t get your hopes up. Manzi:

There was a lot of positive reaction to the fact that Black Friday retail sales in the U.S. were up about 3% vs. last year. Many observers thought this indicated we might dodge a bullet again this Christmas shopping season. The biggest problem with this, of course, is that we don’t know how much discounting had to be done to generate this sales growth. Anecdotal reports are that it was massive, and sufficient to reduce total profit even after the increase in unit sales.

Nixon said it best:

"The Ivy League presidents? Why, I’ll never let those sons-of-bitches in the White House again. Never, never, never. They’re finished. The Ivy League schools are finished … Henry, I would never have had them in. Don’t do that again … They came out against us when it was tough … Don’t ever go to an Ivy League school again, ever. Never, never, never."

Chambliss wins, and the Republican side of the blogosphere breathes a sigh of relief. Scott Johnson:

The decisive victory won by Saxby Chambliss over Jim Martin yesterday in the Georgia Senate runoff is reassuring in several respects. A contrary result would have carried a disproportionately large negative impact. It would have added further weight to the notion that some fundamental shift occurred on November 4. It would have added to the demoralization felt by Republicans licking their wounds following the results on November 4. It would have brought Democrats to within shouting distance of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

The economy won’t stop campaigning for Obama. I suspect that ends January 21.

Even worse than usual:

Today, the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign will release a letter to President-elect Barack Obama strongly backing [Mary Beth Maxwell for Labor Secretary]. The catch: The group last week backed Rep. Linda Sanchez for the post. “You would have received our letter in support of Representative Sánchez’s candidacy for Secretary of Labor last week,” HRC President Joe Solmonese writes, asking for a mulligan. “While we remain supportive of Representative Sánchez’s candidacy, it has come to our attention that Mary Beth Maxwell is also being considered for this crucial position. Given Ms. Maxwell’s long history of leadership on labor issues, HRC is pleased to also endorse Mary Beth Maxwell for Secretary of Labor.”

Why am I not optimistic about any real pro-gay legislation in this Congress? And I don’t mean the utterly trivial and largely useless "hate crime" law.

The dog is out for revenge:

Razib Khan spells out why it’s not an oxymoron:

A common sentiment I’ve heard, and seen in these comments even, is that by definition someone who does not believe in God is simply not a conservative. In which case, should Heather Mac Donald go work for Brookings?  Should John Derbyshire write for The New Republic?  Should AEI offload Charles Murray, who though sympathetic to Christianity, is not (last I checked, Charles evolves) a believer?  Should conservative institutions perform the sort of “faith check” (i.e., you sign some document affirming your adherence to particular propositions) before hiring individuals which many Christian colleges do, so as to filter out those deluded non-believers who wish to forward the conservative cause?

More on this by Razib here. I don’t see how Republicanism, as it is now constructed, can tolerate atheists in its midst. The principles of today’s Christianist GOP are theological before they are political. And when you’re dealing with believers like these people, there is no arguing with revealed truths. Your job is to bow down or get out of the way.