Archives for 2009

We seriously need to get on the ball and find out who kidnapped Matt Welch, because some imposter at Reason had this reaction to the speech:

There was much to dislike about this speech, most notably (for me anyway) the effortless way in which the new president talked out of both sides of his mouth. We will not govern in anger! No more drapes for you, fatcats! Etc. More on which tomorrow.

Welch is responding to this portion of the speech:

I intend to hold these banks fully accountable for the assistance they receive, and this time, they will have to clearly demonstrate how taxpayer dollars result in more lending for the American taxpayer. This time, CEOs won’t be able to use taxpayer money to pad their paychecks or buy fancy drapes or disappear on a private jet. Those days are over.

Accountability is apparently viewed as hostility by libertarians. I guess libertarians think that if you give a bunch of taxpayer money to CEO’s because they have driven their company into the ground but are too big to fail, it is “angry” if you demand they don’t piss away that money redecorating their office or flying to Vegas. Who would have thunk it? Do our libertarian friends at Reason feel the same way about those receiving welfare? I doubt it.

I really don’t know what the hell has happened to the entire collective thought processes at Hit and Run (and let me note I can completely understand why they would not like the speech, but for the reason Welch highlighted here?), and were it not for Radley Balko I would have just given up on the place by now. And I say that as someone who has been reading Matt Welch for most of this decade (I don’t think he has ever not been on my blogroll)- even when he goes on endlessly about the Angels.

*** Update ***

Obligatory Scalzi link:

Libertarians: Never got over the fact they weren’t the illegitimate children of Robert Heinlein and Ayn Rand; currently punishing the rest of us for it. Unusually smug for a political philosophy that’s never gotten anyone elected for anything above the local water board. All for legalized drugs and prostitution but probably wouldn’t want their kids blowing strangers for crack; all for slashing taxes for nearly every social service but don’t seem to understand why most people aren’t at all keen to trade in even the minimal safety net the US provides for 55-gallon barrels of beans and rice, a crossbow and a first-aid kit in the basement. Blissfully clueless that Libertarianism is just great as long as it doesn’t actually involve real live humans.

Libertarians blog with a frequency that makes one wonder if they’re actually employed somewhere or if they have loved ones that miss them. Libertarian blogs even more snide than conservative blogs, if that’s possible. Socially slow — will assume other people actually want to talk about legalizing hemp and the benefits of a polyamorous ethos when all these other folks really want is to drink beer and play Grand Theft Auto 3. Libertarianism the official political system of science fiction authors, which explains why science fiction is in such a rut these days. Libertarians often polyamorous (and hope you are too) but also somewhat out of shape, which takes a lot of the fun out of it.

Easily offended; Libertarians most likely to respond to this column. The author will attempt to engage subtle wit but will actually come across as a geeky whiner (Conservatives, more schooled in the art of poisonous replies, may actually achieve wit; liberals will reply that they don’t find any of this humorous at all). Libertarians secretly worried that ultimately someone will figure out the whole of their political philosophy boils down to “Get Off My Property.” News flash: This is not really a big secret to the rest of us.

That whole Scalzi post is genius.

Missing Person AlertPost + Comments (97)

I’m not sure what is selling lower this morning- Citibank or Jindal 2012 stock, but it really is hard to state accurately just how bad it was. It started off like this:

That was Chris Matthews, and while the folks on the right will be screaming about liberal media bias, they might be wise to remember that Matthews is a superficial twit, but he was responding to the optics of the entrance, and the optics were not good. Watch Jindal goofily lope in his weird gait out to the microphone with that uncomfortable smile on his face- all of which happened after Obama’s command performance in the regal chamber in front of hundreds of clapping people. “Oh, God” is right. And then he started to talk. My snap reaction:

Is Jindal addressing the nation or auditioning for the job as Mr. Rogers replacement? WTF is up with this sing-songy delivery? He sounds like he is addressing grade school kids.

Then again, maybe the Republican voters tuned in for him, so maybe he just knows his target audience.

Now, in fairness, the responses are always awful. Every year (with the exception of Jim Webb) someone is trotted out and forced to give the response, and it is at this point the political equivalent of throwing a virgin into a volcano. It is beyond time for them to end. However, there was something just especially awful this year, and already the comparison to Kenneth from 30 Rock is sweeping across the intertubes.

And speaking of volcanoes, Jindal’s response was just nonsense on wheels. Some snippets:

During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office I’d never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: “Well, I’m the sheriff and if you don’t like it you can come and arrest me!” I asked him: “Sheriff, what’s got you so mad?” He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters.

The boats were all lined up ready to go — when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn’t go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, “Sheriff, that’s ridiculous.” And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: “Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!” Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people.

There is a lesson in this experience: The strength of America is not found in our government. It is found in the compassionate hearts and enterprising spirit of our citizens.

Seriously, does the Governor of the state that required several hundred billion FEDERAL dollars to rebuild really want to crow that the government was the problem. Really? That is rugged individualism? And I thought the lesson of Katrina was that an INSUFFICIENT federal response was the problem. Jindal is now claiming that the strength of America is in the individual response. You heard that right. Bobby Jindal says that what America needed was more folks like… Sean Penn. You know- the guy Republicans mocked during the disaster.

And for the life of me, I have no idea why Republicans hate replacing the federal fleet of cars with fuel-efficient vehicles or monitoring volcanoes to avoid disasters. It seems to me that the latter, making sure volcanoes do not blow up on your citizenry, would be something that even Ron Paul would think is a government job.

These guys have nothing. Absolutely nothing. Well, they do have Fred Hiatt’s editorial page, where Michael Gerson does the deed this morning, but other than that, the Republican party is just a pathetic joke.

*** Update ***

From the comments:

His entrance was horrific. Stepping out of the shadows, he looks like the psycho killer who’s trying to act normal after just having finished sinking a car with a dead body in the trunk in the swamp behind his house. Did M. Night Shyamalan direct that entrance? Because I see dead people.

The Morning After Look at the Jindal ResponsePost + Comments (155)