Entries Tagged 'Politics' ↓

Megan McArdle, a.k.a. Jane Galt, suggested a very interesting and smart tax reform plan about five years ago. I don’t agree with everything she’s suggesting, but I agree with most of it, and her rationale is quite sound. It’s a much more nuanced and smarter approach than the “tax simplification” plans proposed by our politicians.

Entrepreneur Marc Andreessen, the founder of Netscape, sat down with Barack Obama last spring for an hour and a half. He’s finally published his impressions from that meeting. This is a great read — very interesting and inspirational.

Are you in Texas, Ohio, Vermont or Rhode Island? Then be sure to vote in tomorrow’s primary!

So, the next nominee is Harriet Miers. Or as Joel Achenbach put it: Bush Nominates Totally Random Person for Court.

I’m really disappointed in this choice. She’s like the Anti-Roberts. Miers has no significant legal background. Her chief qualification seems to be her loyalty to Bush, which would automatically someone a poor justice. (The whole reason we give lifetime appointments to federal judges is to prevent undue influence from politicians.) But she certainly doesn’t appear to be an intellectual heavyweight. John Roberts went to Harvard Law School, Harriet Miers went to Southern Methodist. And while SMU may be a decent law school, it makes her look like a lightweight when combined with the lack of experience on her resume. (She ran the Texas Lottery Commission?!? That’s the best Bush can come up with?!?)

I’m also disappointed in the Democratic leadership. They opposed Roberts and now they support Miers? Apparently they want the least qualified Supreme Court possible. Oh well, Miers is the least of their problems…

Update: Harriet has her own blog! This is the funniest thing I’ve seen all day!! (Thanks to Jeremy Blachman for the link.)

Update #2: Andrew Sullivan’s coverage of Ms. Miers has been particularly strong. Follow the link to hear what some conservatives and Republicans have to say about the nomination (they seem to be pissed).

I wonder if John Roberts was Judith Miller’s secret source.

Chavez May Try to Extradite Robertson

From Reuters, via the New York Times. If this were in The Onion, I’d find it really funny. Being in a real newspaper, I find it kinda disturbing.

I’d buy a FOXBlocker for my TV, but I’ve already done a pretty good job of removing Fox News from all of my televisions. These days, televisions all allow us to pick which channels appear in the lineup. They did this in 1995. And some even did this in 1985. So I’ve already deprogrammed Fox News from my televisions. Besides, wouldn’t the FOXBlocker degrade your cable TV signal a little bit, since it’s another device that the signal has to pass through? My signal’s already pretty weak; I wouldn’t want to try adding another device into the mix.

My friend Cristian emailed me with a comment about property taxes here in Washington:

so, we, the District, hae a projected 395 million $ surplus for this fiscal year! that’s about $700 per resident.

the crazy mayor will look first into axing property taxes. wrong idea if you ask me!! can’t wait for him to get out. i have plenty of other ideas…

The problem is, property taxes are rising way too quickly. I got my new assessment yesterday actually. My assessment went up 26%, but because of “tax cuts” in the property tax rate, my taxes are only going to rise by 15%. The first year, that was expected. The second year, it was nice to see some kind of written confirmation that my property was appreciating. This year, it’s not a BIG deal, but in a couple years it could become difficult to afford. My salary’s not rising by 15%!

I’d love for my county initiatives to be fully-funded, but if the tax base rises by ~25% every year, it leaves little incentive to keep your costs down or to prioritize your projects. Remember, in Fairfax County, it’s not like there are 25% more people needing services… it’s not that our schools are in dire need of repair… instead we’re getting ice skating rinks and arboretums and county-sponsored bus trips to New York City.

Of course, Washington D.C.’s schools are in dire need of repair. But that’s also a management issue. Even with unlimited funding, no existing city administrator seems likely to fix that.

There are a lot of states that cap how fast property taxes can rise. Basically, it works like rent control: they limit your assessment increases as long as you own the property. When you sell the property, it’s reset to the current market value for the next owner. If DC doesn’t have a cap like that, then I’d endorse that first and foremost. If that’s in place, then I’d endorse property tax relief programs for low-income homeowners and fixed-income retirees. I’m ambivalent about cutting property taxes beyond that; I’d want to know more about what the mayor was proposing.

Schroeder’s a law student in Fort Worth, TX. One of his law school professors didn’t know that Ulysses S. Grant was a president. Schroeder had to argue about it with him and the rest of the class! Unbelievable story, which really is a great metaphor to the kinds of “debate” going on in the public policy arena these days.

In the last few days, there’s been some talk of a “reality-based community” that’s supposedly separate from some kind of non-reality-based community. The “reality-based community” uses facts and logic, whereas the others uses emotion and faith. Basically, a Blue vs. Red thing. The lingo sounds so elitist that it seems like something lying liars would have made up to make the left look bad.

But there’s a valid point in all that: these days in public discourse, non-facts are given the same weight as facts. Kerry said he earned his medals and some Vietnam vets said he didn’t, so the media reported on both without trying to conclusively determine whose argument was true and whose was false. One of them’s gotta be wrong!

If the media won’t analyze arguments anymore, we need to o it ourselves. Look at the original source material. Contact the authors — journalists are always willing to talk. Don’t believe a factual claim just because someone says it’s true. Otherwise, have no right to bitch when a law school professor teaches his class that Ulysses S. Grant wasn’t a president.

While we’re on the subject, here’s a really great article about the candidates’ views on Supreme Court nominees and why neither of their positions are particularly coherent or compelling.

Jeremy Blachman, whose blog is one of my favorites, has posted an awesome parody of last night’s presidential debate. This is hilarious. You all must check it out. Now. I command you, go!