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SOPA, SoCal, So What?

by DF 1/11/2012 - 12:37 am   |

I stumbled across a site called SOPAOpera that's keeping track of who is and isn't supporting the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and the PROTECT-IP Act, SOPA's counterpart in the Senate.  The site also tracks how much money congresscritters have received from the entertainment and tech industries respectively.  SOPAOpera lists the data source as OpenSecrets, which indexes FEC data. [Read more]

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The Ground Beneath Our Feet

by DF 12/19/2011 - 3:10 pm   |

Note to the reader: I had originally planned to divide what follows as a series of posts in order to better present the ideas herein.  However, I've decided to simply cram it all into one post in the interest of getting the ideas out there and hopefully sparking a discussion.  I know that this isn't in the interest of good writing, but I think the prospect of getting these ideas out, here and now, is a more pressing matter. [Read more]

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Crass Warfare

by DF 9/19/2011 - 2:38 pm   |

One interesting thing about the current American political climate is that you only ever seem to hear the phrase "class war" coming out of the mouths of those on the political right.  Predictably, talk of raising taxes on millionaires, which I regard as a political slam dunk that probably should have been a center-piece of Democratic politicking for some time now, has also raised cries of class warfare from the right of the political spectrum.

President Obama addressed that claim today, but he did so by attempting to frame the debate as one of hard choices.  It's not class war, said he, it's simply math.  You can't keep the social programs Americans love and simultaneously reduce debt and deficits without new revenues. [Read more]

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It's the Economy AND the Message, Stupid

by DF 8/12/2011 - 1:43 pm   |

Our own Genghis recently wrote a post that posed the rhetorical question, "Why should you vote for Obama?"  The purpose of his post seemed to be to spark thought and discussion about what Obama's potential campaign paths might be in the face of expectedly dreary economic conditions during the 2012 cycle, which reminded of a new model of presidential elections by UCLA's Lynn Vavreck. [Read more]

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RIP Maxine Udall, Girl Economist

by DF 1/26/2011 - 6:02 pm   |

Via Mark Thoma, I have learned that Maxine Udall, Girl Economist, (born Alison Snow Jones) has passed away.

She was one of my favorite people in the econ blogosphere because she combined very sharp economic accumen with deep thinking about the moral implications of economic policy.  Really, the best kind of economist.

She was a contributor to TPM Cafe and was linked to by Paul Krugman on a number of occasions.

I am sure she was many more things, but this was how I knew her.

She will be missed.

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Dr. Peter Venkman et al. Help Explain the Potential Danger of Wikileaks

by DF 12/5/2010 - 10:34 pm   |

That's 842 cables released, 250,445 to go...

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The Inimitable Sanity of David Frum

by DF 11/10/2010 - 6:54 pm   |

I think that it's fair to say we would all be in better shape if the current manifestion of conservatism in America looked less like Sarah Palin and more like David Frum.  I really disliked his views of 9/11 and the Iraq War.  He's also credited with coining the phrase "axis of evil."  And he was not a crossover conservative in 2008, voting for McCain despite his opinion that Sarah Palin was unqualified.

But since then, he sounds increasingly sane to me.  He was so vocal in his criticisms of GOP obstruction on healthcare reform that it led to a parting of the ways with the AEI.  And on today's edition of Marketplace, he had this to say: [Read more]

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Sarah Palin, Appeaser

by DF 11/9/2010 - 6:35 pm   |

About QE2, the venerable economist Sarah Palin has this to say:

When Germany, a country that knows a thing or two about the dangers of inflation, warns us to think again, maybe it's time for Chairman Bernanke to cease and desist. [Read more]

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Apocalypse When?

by DF 11/3/2010 - 3:13 pm   |

Punditry notwithstanding, this remains true: The sky is not falling.  Aside from some specific details vis a vis Tea Partiers and ongoing demographic changes, there is pretty much nothing really surprising about what happened last night from an historical perspective.

First, "It's the economy, stupid!"  The Democrats could not reasonably have been expected to hold the Whitehouse, House and Senate during relatively high levels of sustained unemployment.  Not only that, but the things that Democrats did do to help the average American during a down economy, like the ARRA and lowering taxes, were not on the radar for many people. [Read more]

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I, For One, Welcome Our Corporate Overlords!

by DF 10/15/2010 - 12:26 pm   |

You know what would really simplify and improve the American political system presently?  I'll tell you: We should all just give our money directly to corporations!  At least, that's what Glenn Beck is apparently advising his audience to do in the form of making political donations directly to the Chamber of Commerce.  Media Matters sums it up:

It’s such a twisted scheme that it’s easier to believe as a piece of performance art meant to mock right-wing pseudo-populism. Though if it was art, it would be dismissed as overly broad and heavy-handed. [Read more]

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