Ricochet Conversations Feed

Peter Robinson : Calling All Texans

Peter Robinson — Sun, 27 May 2012 02:14:58 +0000

Folks, this is a bleg. I need help.

Preparing to interview Gov. Rick Perry for Uncommon Knowledge down in Austin next month, I keep finding the same question coming to mind: What makes Texas Texas?

While my beloved California has raised taxes, imposed onerous regulations, and run vast budget deficits--and all this under both Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, and Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, demonstrating that dysfunction here in the Golden State has become bipartisan--while California has been doing all it could to drive business and enterprising citizens out of the state, Texas has welcomed business, keeping taxes low, imposing a relatively light and more or less sensible regulatory regime, and--this is Perry's personal accomplishment--enacting a tort reform that seems to have ended frivolous lawsuits against business. Of the jobs created in this country in the last few years, according to some estimates, the majority have been created in one state, the Lone Star State.

Pretty clearly, Texas is now deep into a virtuous cycle: Conservative policies have created jobs and wealth--and a hunger for more such policies. But how did the cycle get started? Does it all go back to Sam Houston and the hardy, self-reliant Anglos who moved into the state when it was still part of Mexico, then declared independence? Does it have something to do with the willingness of the business class to participate in politics? Whereas here in California loads of businesspeople shun politics--one of the proudest boasts of the Silicon Valley entrepreneur is that he refuses to have anything to do with politics--in Texas, I've noticed, they seem to play a more active role, helping to choose, and fund, good candidates.

The history of the place, the current business culture--what?

I repeat, What makes Texas Texas?

I'd be happy to hear from anyone who thinks he has an insight to offer, but, needless to say, I extend a particular invitation to the denizens of the Lone Star State. Honestly, I just can't figure it out. Say on!

Peter Robinson : Egypt: Not as Bad as it Looks

Peter Robinson — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:56:30 +0000

In the first round of the Egyptian presidential election, which took place last week, the two top vote getters were Ahmed Shafiq, Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister (pictured to the left), and the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Morsi (pictured on the right). (Morsi, incidentally, is an engineer trained in the United States. His experience of this country seems to have turned him against us.)

These two candidates, both of whom received very nearly 25 percent of the ballots, will now proceed to a second and final round of voting, which will take place on June 16 and 17.

Mubarak's last prime minister or the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood. What a miserable choice--or so I thought until reading Fouad Ajami's piece in today's Wall Street Journal. Even if the Muslim Brotherhood elects its man, Fouad argues, there will be a limit to how much damage he can do:

In the vision of the Islamists, Egypt would be ruled by Shariah law and the secularists reined in. This cannot be sustained on Egyptian soil. Theocracies like Iran, or Saudi Arabia for that matter, rest on oil wealth, on the margin such wealth allows the rulers to mold the society. In Egypt, so dependent on foreign aid, remittances, the revenues of tourism and the kindness of strangers, a religious utopia would be undone.

Egypt may grow worse, in other words, but only by so much.

Well, that's some comfort, anyway.

John Yoo : Revisiting the Bricker Amendment

John Yoo — Sat, 26 May 2012 21:26:07 +0000

My recent book, Taming Globalization, argues that globalization presents profound challenges to the American constitutional order because it gives rise to international law and institutions that demand the transfer of sovereignty in response. Ted Carpenter of the CATO Institute posted a review at Liberty Fund's new website, here.

While generally favorable, Carpenter criticizes the book for its slight mention of the Bricker Amendment and for being too favorable toward presidential interpretation of treaties and international law (as opposed to the courts).

My reply is here.

I think Ricochet readers will find interesting both disagreements, but in particular the Bricker Amendment, which was an effort to amend the Constitution to prevent treaties from having any legal effect within the United States. It failed by only one vote in the Senate. Although Bricker was from the Midwest, I argue that the Amendment was an effort by Southern senators (led by Lyndon Johnson, among others) to prevent human rights treaties from undermining segregation.

Jonathan Horn : Obama Says You Don't Have All the Information

Jonathan Horn — Sat, 26 May 2012 20:10:18 +0000

For more than three years, members of the political class have wondered why some Americans disagree with President Barack Obama's policies. Surely, after all, the problem can't be in the policies themselves. If only Americans understood individual mandates and Keynesian economics, they would grasp the logic of Obama's views.

Earlier this week in Iowa, Obama finally spelled out what the political class has suspected all along. His critics are just poorly informed. Here is an excerpt from his speech with the key line in bold.

And when enough of you knock on enough doors and pick up enough phones, and talk to your friends or your neighbors and your coworkers -- and you're doing it respectfully and you're talking to folks who don't agree with you, you're talking to people who are good people, but maybe they don't have all the information -- when you make that happen, when you decide itâ€™s time for change to happen, you know what, change happens. Change comes to America.

Blue Yeti : Hinderaker-Ward Experience #26: The Amateur

Blue Yeti — Sat, 26 May 2012 19:12:15 +0000

Another Saturday night special edition of The Hinderaker-Ward Experience is ready for your listening pleasure. Itâ€™s John Hinderaker of Power Line and Brian Ward of Fraters Libertas breaking down the big stories of the week. These include President Obamaâ€™s straight-faced claims of leading the most fiscally responsible administration in the last 60 years and Obamaâ€™s perhaps not unrelated difficulties in cracking 60% of the vote running against convicted felons and â€œnone of the aboveâ€ in Democratic primaries around the country.

Special guest this week is New York Times best selling author Edward Klein. His latest book is THE hot buzz story on the Internet this week, itâ€™s The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House. Via hundreds of personal interviews with political and Obama insiders Ed provides previously undocumented details on the Presidentâ€™s background and performance in office over his first term. Lots of juicy tidbits as well, including Bill Clintonâ€™s real opinion of Obama, Valerie Jarrettâ€™s undue influence in the White House, and the acrimonious rivalry between Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey.

Later, Loon of the Week (top Democrat official claims of unnatural relations between Romney and a corporate entity) and This Week in Gate Keeping (how changing one word can REALLY affect the accuracy of a story).

We hope you enjoy, and comments and feedback are always most welcome.

John Bell, Guest Contributor : A Manifesto's Unbridled Power

John Bell, Guest Contributor — Sat, 26 May 2012 15:16:53 +0000

Manifestos ignite people into action. The best manifestos are so emotionally charged that their catalytic influence can endure for centuries. The Ten Commandments and the Declaration of Independence are good examples. As recently as fifty years ago, an emotional speech delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial established a clear and compelling purpose for American Civil Rights. Today, MLK's I Have a Dream is arguably the most inspiring manifesto of the 20^th Century.

Though manifestos are best known for political movements, the ideals and intent of such potent texts can also move people to excel on behalf of the organizations that employ them. Apple is a very good example. Tim Cook stated the Apple Way six months before Steve Jobs passed away. Cookâ€™s declaration left employees and investors believing that Apple could go on without Steve Jobs. Read it and youâ€™ll understand why. Cook said,

We're on the face of the earth to make great products.
We're constantly focusing on innovating.
We believe we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.
We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so we can focus on the few that are meaningful to us.
We believe in deep collaboration and cross pollination in order to innovate in a way others cannot.
We don't settle for anything other than excellence in any group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we're wrong and the courage to change.
Regardless of who is in what job, those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well.

Crafting a company manifesto is no easy task. For the statement to be effective it must:

1. State a Compelling Purpose. Appleâ€™s purpose is all about existing to make awesome products and operating under deep emotional principles.

2. Capture Core Values. Appleâ€™s manifesto is loaded with core values â€“ admitting error, simplifying, collaborating, innovating, and demanding excellence.

3. Tell the Truth. Mission Statements are full of illusionary and distant visions. Great manifestos instantly strike the emotions when they are true.

4. Link Business Life to Personal Life. The Apple Manifesto does not touch on this. It likely doesnâ€™t have to, because unlike most industries, tech life and home life is intertwined â€“ certainly the case at Apple.

5. Be Inclusive. The manifesto must touch (and move) everybody. I donâ€™t know if Disney, Nike, Cirque du Soleil, or the New England Patriots have a manifesto. But they sure as hell act like they do.

6. Differentiate. There is nothing more powerful than differentiation in a competitive arena. That goes for business and sports. Even war.

Unlike the stereotypical corporate mission or the vision statement, a manifesto tells everyone who you are, what you believe in and why you are prepared to invest yourself in the cause. As for a simple manifesto on this thing we call life, I suggest you take a moment to breathe it all in and love it all out.

The above image comes courtesy of Kal Barteski http://www.kalbarteski.com/

Adrian : TCM Alert and Memorial Day Movie Thread: What's Your Favorite War Movie?

Adrian — Sat, 26 May 2012 08:25:04 +0000

To get you started, here's what TCM is playing Monday (yes, I just pasted from their site, I'm busy!):

Green Berets, The(1968) Where Eagles Dare(1969) Guns of Navarone, The (1961) Dirty Dozen, The (1967)Bridge On The River Kwai, The (1957)Great Escape, The(1963) Kelly's Heroes (1970)

I don't know if it counts as a war movie, my favorite is probably The Best Years of Our Lives, which I included in my post last week about best romances. Hey, it's a good flick.

Also of note this weekend:

- We had a great western movie thread, and a lot of people nominated Red River, it's on tomorrow afternoon if you want to catch it.

- The Mortal Storm is on tonight. Made in 1940, one of the earliest Hollywood films to confront what was happening to the Jews in Germany, very good as a movie, even better as a historical document.

That's it for me, let us know your picks in the comments - that's an order!

Robert Mitchell : "No More Qualified than a Plumber"

Robert Mitchell — Sat, 26 May 2012 05:53:51 +0000

Yesterday, Joe Biden was continuing the attack on Mitt Romney's Bain Capital experience, stating that Romney's experience as a private equity CEO "no more qualifies you to be president than being a plumber." For a vice president whose main role on the ticket is to connect with the blue collar Reagan Democrats, that is a Biden blunder ranking up there with praising Obama as "clean and articulate." No surprise.

I view it as a "Kinsley gaffe," in which a politician reveals what he (and in this case, most of the Democrat leadership) actually does think, about the average blue collar tradesman. Why, exactly, is a plumber unfit to be president? I know one plumber who has built up a substantial contracting business over the last 35 years; I suspect his practical knowledge of how the real world works far better fits him to be president than, say, a lawyer with a lifetime in the US Senate or a community organizer turned law professor. But, in the minds of Biden, Obama, and most of the Democratic leadership and the "Mainstream Media", only people possessing advanced degrees are qualified for elective office. (I suspect Sarah Palin's lack of such a credential was the invitation to her marginalization.)

This obsession with higher academic credentials goes far beyond elective office, though. Over the last 40 years, the whole view of blue collar work has changed profoundly. Parents of children who choose not to go to college are deeply shamed (particularly if they attended college themselves). My father (who had a masters degree) never felt that way about my brothers who went into blue collar jobs, but now even those brothers push their own kids to go to college. (This is the cultural driver of the higher ed bubble that is rarely discussed.)

In the 50s America I grew up in, blue collar men were not ashamed of their work, and it was inconceivable that a Vice President of either party would casually voice the kind of snobbism Biden did. The Left's obsession with income equality can be seen as simple projection, a strategy to divert attention from the reality of the Left's contempt for the noncredentialled serfs they pretend to represent.

Diane Ellis, Ed. : #VetThePrez: Obama and Recreational Drugs

Diane Ellis, Ed. — Fri, 25 May 2012 22:46:28 +0000

Had the revelations about young Barry's recreational drug habits surfaced four years ago, maybe they wouldn't have mattered. To be sure, those details wouldn't have hurt his popularity in stoner cities like Santa Cruz, Berkeley, or San Francisco. But it's still uncanny that it all went unremarked upon in 2008.

Mollie already highlighted Obama's old habit of "snagging joints from his buddiesâ€™ hands and shouting â€˜Intercepted!â€™ before taking an extra hit," but BuzzFeed has published the complete User's Guide to Smoking Pot with Barack Obama based on excerpts from David Maraniss' new book. I wonder when we'll see the President interviewed about his activity in the "Choom Gang" (choom is a verb that means "to smoke marijuna"). Specifically, I'd like to hear him tell us about his trendsetting ways:

As a member of the Choom Gang, Barry Obama was known for starting a few pot-smoking trends. The first was called "TA," short for "total absorption." To place this in the physical and political context of another young man who would grow up to be president, TA was the antithesis of Bill Clinton's claim that as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford he smoked dope but never inhaled.

Take a look at the Guide. Maybe it'll provide inspiration for a conversation to have with your children about drugs.

Peter Robinson : Last Questions and the Curse of Sudden Self-Consciousness

Peter Robinson — Fri, 25 May 2012 21:46:02 +0000

An email from Ricochet member Jo:

Hi Peter,
Recently Ricochet solicited questions from members and what a thrill when mine was mentioned in a podcast - "how many last questions does Peter ask per episode [of Uncommon Knowledge]?" It was meant in warmth and fun. I'd always assumed your last questions were a result of your curiosity and passion and every last question made me smile.
But now it appears you're not using this technique any longer. I'm sad. I hope you didn't change your methods because of me. Please, more last questions!!

My reply:

Dear Jo,

Your comment, to be honest, did get inside my head, in that Dumbo-do-you-really-believe-that-feather-enables-you-to-fly kind of way. All of a sudden, I realized that in taping Uncommon Knowledge I quite often promise a guest three, four or five times in a row that this question really is the last question. But in each the last couple of episodes, I was very careful to ask only one last question, making the last question the last.
Now I'll try to reverse myself, going back to my old ways, proffering not just one last question, but a plenitude. I warn you, though, that it won't be any easy. Was Dumbo able to regrasp the feather?

As I say, I'll do my best. But if in the next few episodes you see me crashing to earth--I lack Dumbo's saving ears--you'll all know why.

Rob Long : I Wish They Had Fought Like This Over Obamacare

Rob Long — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:32:14 +0000

In the Ukrainian parliament yesterday, there was a fight over the use of the Russian language. And when I say "fight," I mean fight:

If only they had fought like this over here when Obamacare was enacted.

(I'm only 70% kidding about that, by the way....)

Peter Robinson : Free Advice to the Romney Speechwriting Team

Peter Robinson — Fri, 25 May 2012 19:42:16 +0000

Find some way, and soon, of having the candidate quote Calvin Coolidge--yes, Calvin Coolidge.

From Coolidge's magnificent "Speech on the Occasion of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence":

We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren sceptre in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created it. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling flame, the altar fires before which they worshiped.

Principled, passionate, and informed by a deep knowledge of American history. Traits, in other words, with which Gov. Romney would do well to associate himself. Come to think of it, why not schedule a Romney speech in honor of the Declaration of Independence for this coming Fourth of July?

(A tip of the hat to our own Ben Domenech, who reminded me of the Coolidge passage by using it to conclude an issue this week of his daily roundup of news and politics, "The Transom.")

Troy Senik, Ed. : Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber

Troy Senik, Ed. — Fri, 25 May 2012 18:33:19 +0000

The following appeared in the DC Examiner earlier this week:

House members are dumbing down their speeches, or they are just getting dumber themselves.
That's a conclusion suggested in a new analysis by the Sunlight Foundation, which used an interesting website called Capitolwords.org to analyze the most popular words lawmakers utter on the Senate and House floor every day.
According to Sunlight, Congress speaks nearly a grade level lower than lawmakers did in 2005. Sunlight concluded that Congress speaks at the level of a mid-year high school sophomore. Back in 2005, lawmakers were speechifying like high school juniors
...
The report also calculates that the nation's most historical documents are far, far more sophisticated than any recent floor speech.
The U.S. Constitution, for instance, written at a 17.8 grade level, the Federalist Papers at a 17.1 grade level, and the Declaration of Independence at a 15.1 grade level.
But President Lincolnâ€™s Gettysburg Address comes at an 11.2 grade level and Martin Luther Kingâ€™s â€œI Have a Dreamâ€ speech is at a 9.4 grade level.

First, a word in defense of our inarticulate elected officials. It's apples and oranges to compare speeches with written documents such as the Federalist Papers or the Declaration (the Constitution is an even worse example, since its primary function is as a legal document). And based on the Sunlight Foundation's research, it looks like they're still lapping the public at large:

Lawmakers of both parties still speak over the heads of the average American, who reads at between at 8^th and 9^th grade level.

That's a statistic that will come to mind every time that proposals for expanding voter participation (a topic we've touched on recently) come up.

It seems to me incontrovertible that over the history of our nation we've increasingly valued the democratic over the republican. We've instituted the direct election of senators, made the Electoral College essentially a bizarre quasi-ratification of the popular vote, and in places like California we're approximately 18 months away from deciding that the best method for determining the proper way to cook a roast is to put it to a popular referendum. In essence, we've done everything we can to promote the demotic in American life. The result: elected officials that share the idiom of people who pre-purchase tickets for the "Twilight" movies. Let me go on record now as saying that any public policy that arrests that downward spiral is fine by me.

By the way, one bit of fun for your Friday: Sunlight also has a page showing which SAT words are used most in congressional chambers and which members employ them the most often. An examination of the list shows that Patrick Leahy is the legislator most prone to using the word "asylum." Seems to me that there's some poetry in that fact.

Rob Long : Glad We Saved 'Em

Rob Long — Fri, 25 May 2012 17:26:38 +0000

It's impossible, after the taxpayer-backstopped interventions into the financial markets in 2008 and 2009, to read this story without getting just a little bit cranky.

JP Morgan, the giant -- and mismanaged -- investment bank, reported a $2 billion loss a week or so ago, because of risky trades in one of its own accounts. An account, hilariously, that was designed to be a hedge against other, riskier, accounts.

Who was in charge of risk management for the bank? From Bloomberg:

The three directors who oversee risk at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) include a museum head who sat on American International Group Inc.â€™s governance committee in 2008, the grandson of a billionaire and the chief executive officer of a company that makes flight controls and work boots.
What the risk committee of the biggest U.S. lender lacks, and what the five next largest competitors have, are directors who worked at a bank or as financial risk managers. The only member with any Wall Street experience, James Crown, hasnâ€™t been employed in the industry for more than 25 years.

Okay, stipulated: JP Morgan is a publicly-traded company. If the shareholders want to get rid of the incompetents who manage the bank, they should move to do so. None of my business. (Well, actually, it's some of my business: I own some JP Morgan shares....)

But let's all remember this episode the next time the banks come, hat in hand, for taxpayer-subsidized bailouts.

I've said it before in this space, but it bears repeating: the only -- only -- banking regulation that's effective is the sight of bankers selling apples on the street.

Next time, let them sink.

James Delingpole : Is David Cameron a Soviet Sleeper Agent?

James Delingpole — Fri, 25 May 2012 16:48:12 +0000

In the latest edition of Radio Free Delingpole, I discuss with my old Oxford mucker Toby Young the bizarre disappointment that is yet another of our old Oxford muckers - British prime minister David Cameron. How could someone from the most brilliant Oxford generation in the university's entire near-1000-year history - and a notional conservative to boot - have made such a dreadful hash of running Britain, possibly eclipsing even his unlamented predecessor Gordon Brown in total ruddy awfulness?

As Toby and I show, before getting distracted by the much more interesting subject of Game Of Thrones, there is no easy answer to this. But since then an explanation has occurred to me - prompted by one of the readers on my Telegraph blog (H/T coming your way as soon as you remind me who you are). When you think about it the answer is obvious and has been staring us in the face all along: David Cameron is a Soviet double agent.

This will no doubt strike a chord with US readers - since it's highly likely that President Obama is a Soviet double agent too. The left's Manchurian Candidate, indeed. But enough of that depressing subject, I want to tell you more about my Cameron conspiracy theory.

Here is what we know, as admitted by Cameron last year on a visit to Russia:

In a speech at Moscow State University, the Prime Minister said: "I first came to Russia as a student on my gap year between school and university in 1985.
"I took the Trans-Siberian Railway from Nakhodka to Moscow and went on to the Black Sea coast.
"There, two Russians - speaking perfect English - turned up on a beach mostly used by foreigners.
"They took me out to lunch and dinner and asked me about life in England and what I thought about politics.
"When I got back I told my tutor at university and he asked me whether it was an interview.
"If it was, it seems I didn't get the job!"

All right, so the Soviet system is theoretically dead. But old loyalties die hard. And the clincher, for me, is what happened next.

In a joint press conference later, Mr Medvedev said: "I'm pretty sure that David would have been a very good KGB agent.
"But in this case he would never have become Prime Minister of the UK."

No, of course not Mr Medvedev. Perish the thought.

Paul A. Rahe : Phil Klein and Beyond

Paul A. Rahe — Fri, 25 May 2012 16:15:25 +0000

Phil Klein, whose thinking is referenced by Ben Domenech below, is in all likelihood right. Mitt Romney is no more a socialist than Bloomberg. But he has never been a conservative, and in the past -- before he moved to the national stage -- he distanced himself as much as possible from conservatives and even from the Republican Party. In the 1990s, when he was the Republican nominee for the Senate in Massachusetts, he insisted that he was not the same kind of Republican as Ronald Reagan. A decade later, he insisted that he was "a progressive" in his views and that he should be thought of as "a reformer" and not as a Republican. His record in office as Governor of Massachusetts -- with regard to Romneycare and global warming, for example -- is consistent with this. He deserves our support in the upcoming election but he has not earned and should not be accorded our trust.

That having been said, I would not rule out the possibility that Romney will as President earn that trust. Circumstances -- and I have in mind the grave fiscal crisis threatening the administrative entitlements state -- may persuade him to rethink. He is a man of goodwill and evident integrity. Moreover, he knows a failing enterprise when he sees it; he recognizes the limits of the state's capacity to extract revenue from those who actually work; he has seen the threat that the administrative entitlements state poses to religious and political liberty. If he is in any way intellectually agile, he will by now have realized that the path he was on as Governor in Massachusetts is unsustainable and that, when pursued at the federal level, it will concentrate power and influence in the hands of the federal government on a scale inconsistent with our retention of the liberties we have enjoyed for more than two hundred years.

I realize that there is something to the adage: "You cannot teach an old dog new tricks." At my previous university, I watched one new president after another arrive on the scene, and I learned that, if I really wanted to know what he would do, all that I had to do was to call someone who worked at the institution he had most recently served. But I persist in entertaining the possibility that some old dogs do learn new tricks. At Bain Capital, Romney got a reputation as a chameleon. He took on the coloration, so to speak, of the institution he was trying to turn around. He adopted its culture; he joined its team.

Romney's flexibility is, needless to say, worrisome. But it offers hope as well.

Mollie Hemingway, Ed. : This Memorial Day, Honor Flight

Mollie Hemingway, Ed. — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:49:12 +0000

One of the wonderful things about flying into my local airport, which is Reagan National (DCA) is that you get to see honor flight arrivals. This is where World War II veterans are brought to town to see their memorial at no cost to them. They are frequently met at the airport with bands, other veterans and crowds of supporters. If you're interested in learning more about the organization that sponsors these trips, you simply must watch this video:

And let us know what your Memorial Day plans are this weekend. The Hemingways will visit Arlington National Cemetery.

Ben Domenech : Phil Klein on Conservatives and Romney

Ben Domenech — Fri, 25 May 2012 13:52:49 +0000

The Washington Examiner's Phil Klein, one of the best journalists on the right, makes the case in his new book that conservatives will need to have a very different relationship with a Mitt Romney White House than they did with President Bush (or rather, than they did with Bush until Harriet Miers).

In his book, Klein writes:

â€œThereâ€™s always some argument partisans will make to discourage conservatives from criticizing Republicans. In the coming months, those of us who criticize Romney from the right will be told we should save it until after November, or else weâ€™re just helping Obama. When we do so after the election â€“ should he win â€“ weâ€™ll be told he deserves a honeymoon period and needs to rack up a few accomplishments first before moving to items on the conservative agenda. Eventually, it will be that we canâ€™t weaken him before the midterm elections, and then later, that we have to loudly support him, or else heâ€™ll lose reelection to an even worse liberal boogeyman (or boogeywoman) in 2016.â€

You can purchase it here. It's just $2.99 and well worth the price.

Mollie Hemingway, Ed. : Also 'Intercepted!': Your Health Care Plan, Paycheck, Job

Mollie Hemingway, Ed. — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:51:38 +0000

From Politico's Playbook this morning:

[David] Maranissâ€™s Obama is sympathetic, and in contrast to his exotic background, he emerges as a normal, well-adjusted guy. At Occidental, â€˜Barryâ€™â€™s Mick Jagger impression was legendary, and as a teen at Honoluluâ€™s Punahou School, he was known for snagging joints from his buddiesâ€™ hands and shouting â€˜Intercepted!â€™ before taking an extra hit. Halfway through the book, Maraniss describes a day when a high-school teacher asked Obama what people should most fear. â€˜Words,â€™ uttered the boy who would be known for his stirring speeches. â€˜Words â€¦ can be weapons of destruction.â€™

katievs : Way To Snag Both Social Cons And Libertarians...

katievs — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:45:49 +0000

I could get behind Rand Paul as VP. What do the rest of you think?

George Savage : Random Thoughts from Across the Pond

George Savage — Thu, 24 May 2012 23:30:56 +0000

I am in London at present where the chief concerns are Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee next week, Deputy Prime Minister Clegg's proposal to improve "social mobility," and the incomparable national competitive advantage conferred by Britain's National Health Service.

I normally pay almost no attention to the British royal family. However, on the matter of the Diamond Jubilee I claim personal privilege. My late father, as a young member of the Marine Corps Band, played for the new British monarch on the occasion of her 1957 state visit with President Eisenhower. The fact that the Queen is about to celebrate sixty years on the throne is remarkable, and for me a poignant reminder of the passage of time.

Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg, the junior partner in Conservative David Cameron's coalition government, is promoting what one wag terms a "Clegg up" for Britain's disadvantaged. Clegg decries the poor relative performance of state school graduates competing with private school students for admission to top universities. His solution reads as if lifted from the Obama playbook: lower university entry requirements for state school graduates. Why focus on improving actual education delivered by state schools when it is simpler to order up the elite credential sufficient for a lifetime of lucrative government employment?

Meanwhile, a local budget expert, speaking off-the-record over the traditional English breakfast of eggs, sausage, bacon and tomato, told me that the Government's latest budget is a disaster. Proposed tax cuts seem calculated to stir up maximal opposition while remaining too timid to revive the stalling economy. Reforms targeting business are pitched toward large corporations, with little on offer for unlawyered small enterprises. Hopefully, someone on Mitt Romney's campaign staff will pay attention and keep him from falling into a similar trap of endorsing too-clever-by-half tax reform.

Finally, this morning at the House of Lords I listened to a bipartisan assemblage of the Great and Good discussing the latest triumph of Britain's National Health Service: a new national database guaranteed to improve clinical trial efficiencies. Five minutes before the end of the program, after a solid hour of self-congratulatory commentary, the British founder of one of the world's largest clinical research organizations reported that, notwithstanding this latest achievement of centralized decision making, his company would continue to employ three times as many people in Poland as in the UK, since the NHS's 1.4 million-strong bureaucracy efficiently strangles timely clinical trial completion, no matter how comprehensive the computer system. The comment, seemingly calculated to stir debate, sank without a trace into the swirling sunlit waters of the Thames.

ObamaCare delenda est.

Diane Ellis, Ed. : Alan Simpson's Epic Rant

Diane Ellis, Ed. — Thu, 24 May 2012 23:04:41 +0000

In The Transom this morning, Ben Domenech highlighted a letter that former Sen. Alan Simpson sent to members of the California Alliance of Retired Americans in reaction to protests he encountered during his West Coast tour with Erskine Bowles. When I first saw it, I thought it must be some type of parody. But it turns out it's just one of the greatest rants to ever see the light of day.

To Whom It May Concern:
Erskine Bowles and I thoroughly enjoyed our time on the West Coast and received an excellent reception from folks â€” at least those who are using their heads and have given up using emotion, fear, guilt or racism to juice up their troops. Your little flyer entitled â€œBowles! Simpson! Stop using the deficit as a phony excuse to gut our Social Security!â€ is one of the phoniest excuses for a â€œflyerâ€ I have ever seen. You use the faces of young people, who are the ones who are going to get gutted while you continue to push out your blather and drivel. My suggestion to you â€” an honest one â€” read the damn report. The Moment of Truth â€” 67 pages, and then tell me if weâ€™re not doing the right thing with Social Security. What a wretched group of seniors you must be to use the faces of the very people that we are trying to save, while the â€œgreedy geezersâ€ like you use them as a tool and a front for your nefarious bunch of crap. You must feel some sense of shame for shoveling out this [expletive]. Read the latest news from the Social Security Trustees. The Social Security System will now â€œhit the skidsâ€ in 2033 instead of 2036. If you canâ€™t understand all of this you need a pane of glass in your naval so you can see out during the day! Read the report. Get back to me. My address is below.
If you donâ€™t read the report, â€” as Ebenezer Scrooge said in the Christmas Carol, â€œHaunt me no longer!â€
Best regards,
Alan Simpson

Peter Robinson : Fred Smith, a Very, Very Smart Man, Talks About Oil

Peter Robinson — Thu, 24 May 2012 22:02:35 +0000

A few days ago I had the opportunity to hear Alan Murray of the Wall Street Journal interview Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx. Murray is an exceptionally skilled interviewer, and every sentence he elicited from Smith proved fascinating--if you want to know what's going on in the world, ask a man whose company flies thousands of planes to hundreds of cities every day--but looking over my notes just now I found that Smith kept coming back to the importance of increasing domestic oil production.

In 2001, he said, the typical American family of four spent $1,500 a year on gasoline. Last year that figure had risen to $4,000. "What we've witnessed," Smith said, "is the largest transfer of wealth [a transfer from the West to the oil-producing nations] in the history of the world."

"If the U.S. gets any significant economic growth," Smith said, "you can count on the price of oil being raised to extract a large share of the value."

"The oil producers would do that intentionally?" Murray asked.

"Of course," Smith replied. "There are a lot of smart people in Riyadh."

Since oil represents a globally-traded commodity, Smith noted, increasing production here in the United States wouldn't affect the price. But instead of transferring them to oil-producing nations, he insisted, we should "keep all those dollars bouncing around the fifty states."

Smith lost his father when he was just four, grew up in small-town Mississippi, attended Yale before serving two tours of duty in Vietnam with the Marine Corps, and then founded and built one of the greatest companies in American business history. If Mitt Romney is still pulling together his vice presidential prospects, he could do a lot worse than to add Smith to the list.

Bill McGurn : Back Home in Indiana

Bill McGurn — Thu, 24 May 2012 21:01:58 +0000

The politics of the contraceptive mandate get more interesting. This week Notre Dame joined the bishops of several dioceses in initiating lawsuits against the Health and Human Services department, claiming Mrs. Sebelius's mandate is a violation of religious liberty.

That's making for some interesting developments in Hoosierland. This afternoon the South Bend Tribune reports the GOP candidate who unseated Dick Lugar in the Republican primary, Richard Mourdock, announced during a visit to South Bend that he supported Father Jenkins and the Fighting Irish in their lawsuit. He added a little stinger:

"It's ironic that a graduate of Ball State should be here defending Notre Dame when a Notre Dame graduate, my opponent Joe Donnelly, refuses to do so," Mourdock said during a press conference at Republican Party Headquarters.
Mourdock also questioned Donnelly's non-support of the "Blunt amendment," which would have allowed employers with moral objections to the contraception mandate to opt out of it.

As Mr. Mourdock reminded his audience, Mr. Donnelly is a Notre Dame alum who has thus far been silent on whether he supports his alma mater in its lawsuit. He was also one of the handful of prolife Democrats whose votes for Obamacare pushed it through. In his case, his vote came after a call from former ND president Father Ted Hesburgh, who says he urged the Congressman to vote his conscience.

Rob Long : Welcome, New Members!

Rob Long — Thu, 24 May 2012 20:48:29 +0000

From time to time, we suddenly look up from our computers and think, "Hey! Ricochet has a lot of new members."

So from all of us, Welcome! If you've got a moment and are so inclined, introduce yourself below.

Jump right in. There's lots to talk about.

John Yoo : Biden for the Supreme Court? A Subsidy for Comedy Writers

John Yoo — Thu, 24 May 2012 19:49:50 +0000

At White House Dossier earlier this week, reporter Keith Koffler speculated (tongue seemingly half in cheek) about the possibility of President Obama moving Vice President Biden to the Supreme Court to open up the bottom of the Democratic Party's presidential ticket.

Putting Biden on the Court is just a plot by the comedy writers union to keep themselves in business long after the Obama administration has left the stage. Not only would it keep everyone's favorite gaffe artist around, but it would give Biden a regular speaking opportunity every month during oral argument, where he would have a captive audience of at least two oral advocates. One must pity the counsel who would have to listen to Biden's speeches -- I mean, answer his questions--from the bench. And imagine the possibilities: Biden not just on gay marriage, but on physician-assisted suicide, religious groups in school, abortion, GPS tracking.

But the serious point is that it might not be so bad to have someone other than a judge on the Court. Agree with their decisions or not, but the two greatest Chief Justices in Supreme Court history -- John Marshall and Earl Warren -- were not lower court judges. Experienced judges bring a particular viewpoint to the job, one that lawyers will generally applaud since they all come from the same culture and have the same training and professional values. But it may not be the best view (or at least one that should be exclusive) on a Court that is becoming increasingly embroiled in political issues.

Troy Senik, Ed. : Joe Paterno Breaks One Last Record

Troy Senik, Ed. — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:27:20 +0000

From Pennsylvania's Patriot-News:

Joe Paterno has apparently set another record.
The former Penn State football coachâ€™s estate will collect what is likely the single-largest pension benefit ever paid by the Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System.
Paternoâ€™s widow, Sue, is to receive a payout of $13.4 million resulting from the late coachâ€™s 61 years of well-compensated service to the university.
Paternoâ€™s family released the information on his pension through a spokesman Tuesday.
The payout is due to the rare convergence of an extremely high salary for public-sector work and the length of the coachâ€™s career.

Meanwhile, from the editorial page of another Pennsylvania publication, the Centre Daily Times:

Underfunded pensions for two employment groups â€” teachers and other school workers, and state government employees â€” are causing a $1.1 billion hit on the current state budget of about $27 billion. Thatâ€™s up from $200 million a year ago.
The number will jump to $1.6 billion in 2013-14, and could hit $4 billion in the coming years unless steps are taken to slow the acceleration of costs.
However, donâ€™t be quick to point the finger at the workers.
For the past decade, the state has been putting about 50 cents into the pot for every $1 those workers contributed â€” even though the shares were to be equal.

Pennsylvania, I have seen your future: we call it "California."

Rob Long : Obama: A "Slight Favorite" to Win in November

Rob Long — Thu, 24 May 2012 17:25:05 +0000

Over at Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball, a pretty sobering -- and clear-headed -- analysis of the November possibilities, with an additional data point folded in:

...my previous research shows that we can greatly improve the accuracy of our November forecast by including two additional predictors along with the incumbentâ€™s approval rating: the growth rate of the economy during the first two quarters of the election year and the â€œtime for changeâ€ factor, which indicates whether the incumbentâ€™s party has held the White House for only one term or for two or more terms. Incumbents whose party has held the White House for two or more terms do significantly worse than those whose party has held the White House for only one term, even after taking into account the incumbentâ€™s approval rating and the condition of the economy.

So if you factor in the May approval rating -- which is, apparently, a pretty good indicator for November's outcome -- and GDP, and the "time for change" data point, you get this:

So what does our improved forecasting model indicate about President Obamaâ€™s chances of winning a second term in the White House? That depends of course on the growth rate of the economy during the first two quarters of the year. The governmentâ€™s initial estimate of real GDP growth during the first quarter of 2012 was about 2%, and growth during the second quarter is expected to be similar. If we assume that real GDP will grow by 2% during the first half of 2012, the full forecasting model predicts that Obama will end up with 51% of the major party vote in November, not much different from what the simple approval-based model predicted.

In other words: this is not going to be a cakewalk.

Richard Epstein : Score One for the Technocrats

Richard Epstein — Thu, 24 May 2012 17:03:04 +0000

Administrative law has long been understood to be a law unto itself. Charged with the interpretation of complex statutes, the Supreme Court has taken a consistently deferential position toward agency interpretations of the statutes that they administer.

Nowhere was that more evident than in the case of Astrue v. Capato, decided earlier this week, where the question was whether IVF twins, conceived after their father died of esophageal cancer, could claim survivor benefits under the Social Security law.

The catch in the case was that the decedentâ€™s will did not mention these posthumous children, so that the question of whether they counted as his children turned on Florida inheritance law. Michael Astrue, the Social Security Commissioner, decided to play hardball on the issue, and the Supreme Court--after an extended, mind-numbing exegesis of the word â€œchildâ€ under the Social Security law--held that his interpretation was correct, or at least correct enough to command the respect of the Court.

When I think about the problems of potential abuse in the administration of the Social Security system, this one does not rank in the top one million. No one has the slightest desire to heap indignity and deprivation on top of family charity. Yet the United States Supreme Court proved that, when it comes to administrative law, it does not have a heart, and it does not care about the personal issues involved in the case. That is, oddly enough, the correct attitude to take on legal matters.

But the same cannot be said for the Social Security Commission, which should have looked elsewhere to close down its own yawning deficit. One only hopes that Congress will pass a bit of ad hoc, retroactive legislation that says in this case, and all others like it, these children conceived after the death of their father should receive their benefits, regardless of the state laws of inheritance, which should be amended to cover the case in any event. If there were ever a case for big government this is it, so letâ€™s hope that Congress can open this one purse string a little wider.

Peter Robinson : Dave Carter, Stoned Again

Peter Robinson — Thu, 24 May 2012 16:00:15 +0000

This just in from our beloved Dave Carter, who wanted me to know why he probably wouldn't be posting for a couple of days. Dave, always thinking of Ricochet--even under duress.

Dear Peter,
Well, the bad news is that I'm in the hospital again with another kidney stone....
The good news that my nurse is interested in joining Ricochet. He's a very conservative gentleman, and anxious to learn more about Ricochet, which I am happy to help grow, one stone at a time.
Pass the pain meds,
Dave

Spare a prayer for Dave. He may remain the very picture of good cheer, but this hurts.