A meme gathers steam, care of pop-ed sociologist David Brooks : About 40 years ago, a social movement arose to destroy the establishment. The people we loosely call the New Left wanted to take on The Man, return power to the people, upend the elites and lead a revolution. Today, another social movement has arisen
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Tea Party/Baby Boomer Watch
Reason Contributing Editor Julian Sanchez, writing at the American Prospect , looks at another Obama change promise lost, to, as Sanchez puts it, “restore some of the checks on government surveillance power that had been demolished in the panicked aftermath of the September 11 attacks.” More from Sanchez on this byzantine story of how governments tend to want the power to surveill, and will do whatever it takes to keep what they got and keep trying to get more: [L]ast week…a Democratic-controlled Congress quietly voted to reauthorize three controversial provisions of the USA Patriot Act without implementing a single one of the additional safeguards that had been under consideration — among them, more stringent limits on the national security letters (NSLs) Obama had once decried.
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Obushma Watch Vol. 99: National Security Letter Edition
Ron Hart on bipartisanship: We should be delighted there is no bipartisanship in Washington. Bipartisanship brings about bad decisions, like the Iraq War. The Democrats had 60 votes for ObamaCare which they had to bribe some of their Senators to secure—the bill is that bad
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No Cheers For Bipartisanship
On Newsweek ’s website, Associate Editor Peter Suderman looks at how Congressman Paul Ryan’s plan to cut spending and kill the deficit might cause trouble for the GOP : Ask most Republican politicians what they stand for, and they’ll quickly pledge allegiance to the principles of limited government, restrained federal spending, and fiscal responsibility.
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Reason Writers Around Town: Peter Suderman in Newsweek on Paul Ryan’s Roadmap for America’s Future
Reason Senior Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward appeared on RT’s The Alyona Show on February 4, 2010, as part of a panel to discuss the marketing strategies of the Democratic and Republican parties. Approximately 13 minutes.
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Reason Staffers on the Tube: Katherine Mangu-Ward on Evil Republicans and Stupid Democrats at Russia Today
Jerry Brown officially entered California’s gubernatorial race today. Last year, after it became clear that Brown wanted to take back the job he had held from 1975 to 1983, I wrote an article about his career and the mixture of idealism and opportunism that has always fueled it
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Hey, Ho! Go With the Flow!
From The Hill : House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday that Republicans have left their mark on the healthcare bill and should accept that the bill will go forward. “They’ve had plenty of opportunity to make their voices heard,” she said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday morning. “Bipartisanship is a two-way street. A bill can be bipartisan without bipartisan votes.
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Nancy Pelosi: “A bill can be bipartisan without bipartisan votes.”
Now that the bipartisan health care squawkathon is, praise the gods of C-SPAN, finally over, Democratic legislators can finally get down to the important business of ignoring the polls and radically overhauling the entire U.S. health care system via party-line vote. To do so, they’ll have to use a budgetary process known as reconciliation, which allows Democrats, who no longer control a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate, to circumvent a Republican filibuster with a simple 51-vote majority
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On Reconciliation, Both Parties Agree: The Other Side Is Right!
That’s the claim of this cheeky L.A. Times op-ed by political consultants and self-confessed “aging boomers” Jim Spencer (the slick-fielding first baseman, one can only hope ) and Curtis Ellis
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Are Tea Parties Just Another Baby Boomer Bummer?
Obama Transportation Secreatry Ray LaHood is now formally pushing a federal law banning texting while driving. LaHood has already banned texting for commercial truck and bus operators and federal employees on the job, but applying the ban to regular motorists would presumably involve blackmailing the states with federal highway funds. But LaHood isn’t stopping there.
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DOT Sec. LaHood Takes Aim at Texting While Driving, Car Gadgetry, Sound Policy
