Archive for January, 2011

I don’t think we will see the same cartoons as 1986

Posted: January 28, 2011 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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I was always a fan of political cartoons and when Ferdinand Marcos was in the process of being overthrown the White House and the president made some intemperate statements in support of Marcos and suggesting that both sides in the Philippines were at fault in the People power revolution.

I remember in particular a Pat Oliphant cartoon where the line kept coming up “Marcos is a cheap crook change the position boss”

Well Joe Biden has decided to interject himself in a rather foolish way into the Egypt mess:

Ahead of a day that could prove decisive, NewsHour host Jim Lehrer asked Biden if the time has “come for President Mubarak of Egypt to go?” Biden answered: “No. I think the time has come for President Mubarak to begin to move in the direction that – to be more responsive to some… of the needs of the people out there.”

Asked if he would characterize Mubarak as a dictator Biden responded: “Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things. And he’s been very responsible on, relative to geopolitical interest in the region, the Middle East peace efforts; the actions Egypt has taken relative to normalizing relationship with – with Israel. … I would not refer to him as a dictator.”

I don’t think Pat will be drawing a cartoon hitting Biden anytime soon, meanwhile in the real world:

In Desperation Move, Egyptian Regime Shuts Down Access to Iowahawk

Also, the entire freaking Internet:

[I]n an action unprecedented in Internet history, the Egyptian government appears to have ordered service providers to shut down all international connections to the Internet.

When you have a government cutting off all internet and all phone the worm is not only turning but it is doing somersaults. This is going to tip huge and if we are on the wrong side of it we will be in trouble.

Meanwhile the Wikileaks are doing their best to help us out aren’t they by leaking communications.

Aren’t you glad we have a president Obama instead of a president McCain to deal with this issue? Aren’t you glad we have Biden speaking out on Egypt rather than Palin for the country? Maybe Pat will draw a cartoon about that.

The real question is not if the revolt will work. (I say it will) it is who will be taking it over once it is all done.

Mike Pence is the talk of the CPAC crowd

Posted: January 28, 2011 by datechguy in politics, primaries 2012
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…yesterday with the reports that he will not run for president this year:

Three sources close to Republican Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana tell CNN they are told he will announce he is not running for president in 2012 and will instead begin exploring a run for governor.

These sources say he has been flattered by the efforts to nudge him into the GOP presidential race but, as one of the sources put it, “he is a realist and kept coming back to questions about the fund-raising.” The second source said some around Pence also have reminded him of the difficulty of mounting a presidential campaign from the House, and noted that, at age 51, he would have a better platform to explore a presidential run if he first was elected governor.

There is a fair amount of disappointment in the CPAC community over this today but I think this is a great development. The easiest way for a non-conservative to win the Republican primary is for too many strong conservatives splitting the vote. I suspect that some good conservatives who have no prayer of winning are going to find themselves well-financed early by people who want that vote divided to allow an establishment candidate some space. That’s how you win a nomination with only 35-40% of the vote.

I think this is good news for us. Of course we haven’t heard the actual announcement so this could all be smoke.

I guess TPM doesn’t know their history

Posted: January 28, 2011 by datechguy in opinion/news
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TPM is making fun of Sarah Palin for noting that the Soviets won the space race.

‘WTF?’ Sarah Palin Thinks The USSR Won The Space Race? (VIDEO)

Ah guys as an old fellow I hate to break it to you but They did. Sputnik was the first satellite that was the race to space. You might have heard of a fellow named Yuri Gagarin, first man into space? That was the Space race

There is a huge difference between the race to the moon and the “race to space”. In their desperation to hit Palin this misunderstand history. Tell me who are the idiots here?

(I do disagree with Gov Palin that it wasn’t the space race, but the ARMS race and Star Wars that was the final bankrupting of the Soviet Union but that’s not TPM’s point)

Update: via Glenn a Soviet expert agrees with Palin. It sounds like an awaking a sleeping giant argument, but he’s an expert and I’m not.

Penny wise Pound Foolish

Posted: January 27, 2011 by datechguy in politics
Tags: ,

A lot of people on the left are upset that the filibuster rules in the senate:

They could have recently used the “Constitutional Option” at the start of this new Congress to rewrite the Senate rules to either eliminate the filibuster outright or at least make staging a filibuster more difficult. Yet, due to a combination of a greedy refusal to give up any individual power, and a pitiful cowardice about a potential future in which the voters reject them, Senate Democrats collectively chose to throw away this opportunity. By doing nothing, they effectively voted to give Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell total veto power over everything.

Byron York explains that’s its just not future minorities that are the issue

Why did Democrats give in? Two reasons. One, they know they might soon need the filibuster themselves — not in a few years, but in a few months. Republicans now have 47 votes in the Senate. If they can peel away four Democrats on any given piece of legislation — say, the repeal of a portion of Obamacare — they could be stopped only by a Democratic filibuster. The Democrats who are now denouncing the filibuster when it’s used by Republicans might soon be employing it themselves to fend off GOP challenges to Obamacare and other Obama initiatives.

I’ve already pointed out that Harry Reid needs to give democrats the ability to vote against Obamacare, is there is no filibuster then he can only give that ability to three of them. (With Biden breaking a tie)

If the Filibuster exists then he can give this to as many as 12. But lets not also forget that the Senate was designed to slow things down as this story states:

“Why,” said Washington, “did you just now pour that coffee into your saucer before drinking it?”

“To cool it,” said Jefferson; “my throat is not made of brass.”

“Even so,” said Washington, “we pour our legislation into the Senatorial saucer to cool it.”

I think the filibuster is a good thing, I think it should stay right where it is no matter who is in charge of the senate.

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