Thursday, April 1, 2010

The Noise Machine (04/01/2010)

No joke: It seems we're the fools.....


Today's ChronBlog Pop Quiz: Was this article the work of a breathless non-critical fan or a journalist dutifully reporting the facts?


Nobody likes Obama's offshore drilling plan because it's not a very good plan. (Typically, moving to the middle means taking the best ideas from both sides and mashing them together. Obama has shown a propensity to take the worst ideas and throw them into the soup using a formula that won't work. Unless there's shared revenue w/the States, there won't be new drilling, period.)


Given the choice, I'd rather have Tom Penders back. (Way to blow the hire UH)


PKF Consulting, home of downtown Houston hotel booster John Keeling has finally found a Houston forecast they don't like. Curiously Keeling (who for years projected great increases in hotel occupancy and revenues that never materialized) is not mentioned anywhere in the story.


Democratic blogger Charles Kuffner continues his series on Dem-favorable voting trends. Regardless of your party affiliation the eroding of the Republican structural advantage in Texas is worth noting.


A one term wonder? I'm not convinced. (It's a LONG way to 2012 after all)


I'm not the biggest fan of Sen. Jim DeMint, but he's bang-on here. Regulation does not equal reform. (Just as intense regulation of the Health Insurance Industry does not equal healthCARE reform) It'd be nice if Society's Least Common Denominator could figure that out.


A must-read relating to US/Israeli relations.

Coupled up with a must-read on international relations.

(They're called Allies for a reason you know?)


When I mention the new political courtesan class, this is what I'm referring to. (As in pre-revolutionary France, the courtesan class exists only to feed the beast and gain access to the King.)


My guess is no. (But then, those who wrote the Health Insurance Regulation Bill probably don't hold the principles of the Founders in high regard anyway.)


I give you, the last refuge of those who are losing the battle of public opinion. Question the sanity of your opponents. (Or, even better, their honesty, belief systems, integrity or pretty much anything you can to try and discredit them, because their argument is sound.)


As near as I can tell...No one is arguing the numbers* (this despite the fact that the Tribune hyperlink says "fuzzy-math" nice bit of behind the scenes editorializing.) only the fact that Suehs is starting his decade calculation after the Federal subsidies go away. In other words, the problem is not that Suehs is wrong, it's that he's looking further into the crystal ball than others want him to.



And finally...




If redistricting goes smoothly this time around it will be a first. Compromise or no there's going to be a lot of angry blog posts, accusations of chicanery (cast as the worst EVER by breathless bloggers) on both sides, and backroom deals cut to ensure that the electeds can stay in office until they're ready to retire. (That's life.)










*Except for Henry Waxman that is. Honestly though why, at this point, should any of us take anything Waxman says seriously?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ditto on the UH hire. Sounds like they took the cheapest rather than the best.

Kevin Whited said...

With James Dickey, it seems like they went for a coach a lot like the guy they just bought out, but with more losing seasons, a few hundred fewer career victories, a losing record head-to-head, and much less of a national reputation.

I hope/think he will be a solid coach, but is he going to advance the program very much? Even the biggest optimist would have trouble making that case.

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