Jul 20 2008

McCain, School Choice, the NAACP and the Feds

Category: education,election 2008,McCain,Obama,politics — harmonicminer @ 3:00 pm

John McCain to NAACP: It’s Time for School Choice

John McCain told the NAACP this morning that after decades of broken promises by the nation’s public school systems it is time to give all parents an easy choice of public and private schools. He is right, so long as he doesn’t propose a private school choice program at the national level.

At the link are some excellent comments about proper limits for federal involvement in a school choice program.

Nationally, blacks want school choice. Obama, as usual, is trying to have it both ways. Don’t expect a clear statement on the issue from him, given that his primary constituency, blacks, wants school choice, but his primary enabling constituency, the teachers union, does not. Actually, expect several clear statements from him, just don’t expect them to agree, and expect his campaign surrogates to spin in various directions, depending on who they’re talking to.

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Jul 13 2008

There’s no speculative bubble in water

Category: election 2008,energy,middle east,Obama,oil prices,politics — harmonicminer @ 9:00 am

It’s popular to blame oil speculators for the high price of gasoline. These are the people who buy the right to purchase a future amount of oil product at a given price. So when there is a “bubble”, they are betting the price will be higher in the future, and so they’ll pay for that bet, and the price of oil goes up.

Factors the speculators consider include the political situation in the Middle East, rising demand in Asia, the likelihood that new supplies won’t be developed elsewhere anytime soon, etc. It’s important to realize that ALL of these reasons boil down to guessing if there will be enough supply for the demand. Everytime Iran makes a threat, the price goes up, because no one knows what Iran will do in the future, if military action against Iran or by Iran will reduce supply then, etc.

Remember, if the speculators bet wrong, they lose money.

But not everyone buys that it’s the speculators’ fault:

Continue reading “There’s no speculative bubble in water”

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Jul 08 2008

Why the Twenty-Somethings Should Vote For Obama #1

Category: election 2008,Obama — sardonicwhiner @ 10:10 pm

Because he’ll make sure the twenty-somethings pay for my retirement and medical care, even though I’ll have more money than them. Why should those lazy millenial types get to put aside any more of their own money than I did mine at their age? They OWE me.

Big Time.

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Jul 03 2008

For the politically less interested, who still plan to vote

Category: election 2008,McCain,Obama — harmonicminer @ 11:00 am

If You Are Just Starting To Think About This Election… Clear thinking from John Mark Reynolds

Normal people, those with actual lives, do not follow every poll on Real Clear Politics. If you have a good life, then it is likely that you are only vaguely aware that soon you will have to TIVO past even more political ads. You know there is an election this year, but like a trip to the dentist, you have put off the unpleasant task of deciding on a candidate. Fortunately for you, there are now only two candidates left with any chance of actually being the president.

Many (if not most) American voters only know three things about the two guys running for President:

1. Neither of them is named Clinton or Bush.

(A pause to thank God for His mercies.)

2. One is young and cool.

3. The other is old and a war hero.

Blessed is the man who does not check Rasmussen Report three times a day. If you are this person, congratulations on living a peaceful life. The genius of the republic is that it allows a man to be a patriot without being a politico.

There is more, and if you’re not really up to speed on the candidates, you really need to read all of this.

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Jun 27 2008

President on training wheels?

Category: election 2008,terrorism,Uncategorized — harmonicminer @ 3:56 pm

From Hugh Hewitt’s Blog:

From the San Francisco Chronicle’s coverage of a National Academy of Sciences meeting underway in D.C.:

It is a grim, almost unthinkable scenario: a 10-kiloton nuclear weapon, smuggled into the United States, is detonated in a major U.S. city, perhaps even the Bay Area.

Top federal officials and medical experts gathered in Washington on Thursday to consider this nightmare vision. Their conclusion: Cities and states are frightfully ill-prepared for dealing with an attack using a small nuclear bomb.

“Few of them have coordinated response plans for the aftermath of nuclear terrorism,” said Brooke Buddemeier, a specialist in the radiological and nuclear counter-measures division at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. “There is a general lack of understanding of the response needs and uncertainty over federal, state and local roles and responsibilities.”

Federal officials are worried enough to have convened a National Academy of Sciences committee on medical preparedness for a nuclear attack by terrorists. The panel is holding its first two-day meeting in Washington this week.

The presentations got specific:

The committee began its first session with a ghastly overview of what a 10-kiloton nuclear blast would look like: If detonated at the White House, it could destroy virtually every building within 1,500 yards. People in an area out to 1.55 miles could suffer second-degree burns, while others would be injured by flying debris and shattered windows. Those 4.5 to 7.5 miles away could suffer momentary “flash” blindness, causing traffic accidents.

A lethal plume of radioactive material would, depending on winds, stretch as far as 9 miles, affecting up to 300,000 people, although injuries would depend on a person’s exposure to radiation.

“It’s not just about radiation exposure,” Buddemeier said. Many of the injured would have shards of glass in their eyes, ruptured eardrums and other impact injuries from the blast’s shock waves.

Read the whole thing and understand that there are millions of people who go to sleep every night and dream of such a scenario –and take pleasure in it.

Good Lord. I don’t usually quote an entire post of someone else, but: Good Lord.

The 2008 elections are not just about health care and the economy, or even the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Which of our candidates do YOU want running the show? Which one do YOU think is likely to know more about this threat, and be highly focused on doing something about it?

This is no time for a President on training wheels.

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