Category Archives: Republicans

Stiglitz Stinks

Debt, Economy, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Political Economy, Republicans

“In 2002, Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel economics prize winner and two co-authors (Jonathan Orszag and Peter Orszag), published an article (‘Implications of the New Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Risk-based Capital Standard’) in Fannie Mae Papers. They argued that Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s risk-based capital standard made it very unlikely that the two GSEs (government-sponsored enterprises) would ever require a government bailout. Their results suggested that ‘the risk to the government from a potential default on GSE debt is effectively zero,’ even in ‘the financial and economic conditions of the Great Depression.’ The authors apparently underestimated the possible credit losses from a deep recession, besides ignoring the possibility that the quasi-nationalized housing market and the GSEs could themselves generate a recession. Fannie Mae and presumably the learned authors are not especially proud of this paper, which has disappeared from the GSE’s site,” but our friend Pierre Lemieux, Canadian economist and libertarian extraordinaire, has reproduced it on his site.

So what if Stiglitz is wrong most of the time? Other than some libertarians and devotees of the school of Austrian economics, most pundits make a perfectly good living being mostly wrong.

Public goodwill runs eternal for these failed “experts.” Neoconservative talking twits had been wrong all along about the invasion of Iraq; They consistently dished out dollops of ahistoric, unintuitive, and reckless verbiage. Yet they’ve retained their status as philosopher-kings.

Why not left-liberals like the Keynesian Stiglitz? (Not to be outdone, Republicans are also Keynesians. Or Republikeynsians.)

Update II: Conservative Chicks

Aesthetics, Conservatism, Gender, Media, Pop-Culture, Republicans, The Zeitgeist

“Blond Squad” is a synonym for the conservatives’ chick of choice. She can be brunette, although that is not as desirable. She has to be dumb.

Here is a cliched comment, if ever there was one, by a conservative columnist about “Carrie [Prejean’s] book, Still Standing:

It “reveals a courageous woman whose Christian faith is still in its infancy. She was thrust into the national spotlight and all too quickly became a heroine for those who are sick and tired of Hollywood and the thought police. Unable to see yet the disconnect between her desire to be a ‘Victoria’s Secret Angel’ and the biblical morality she professes, Carrie is painfully discovering truth as she goes.”

Contrast the comment with the sordid reality:

“Carrie Prejean is known for hard-core sex tapes, nude pictures and a string of lies.”

And this:

“Vivid Entertainment wants to acquire the rights to the ‘erotic footage that Carrie Prejean, former Miss California, produced for her boyfriend,’ according to the letter obtained by TMZ.com. In the letter, Hirsch says Prejean could ‘certainly earn millions of dollars’ from a deal to distribute the racy videos.”

Here is more of Fox News’ favorite character’s trademark narcissism and exhibitionism disguised in the liberal language of the professional victim:

Carrie Prejean says a steamy tape she made for an ex-boyfriend a few years ago was “the biggest mistake” of her life.
The former Miss California USA told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Monday that she shot the racy tape by herself for a boyfriend she loved when she was 17. Later, he “betrayed” her and sold it.

Ann Coulter’s powers of deduction seemingly don’t extend to Conservative Victims and Their Assault on America.

Prejean’s looks comport with what I’ve termed the porn aesthetic. She is most certainly not beautiful.

carrie-prejean-sf4

Those who’ve been conditioned to consider beautiful women who look well-used, cheap, unrefined, and whorish even in their youth will object. But you only have to think of Audry Hepburn, or the bare-faced Julie Christie to remember what natural, striking beauty is.

Update I: Julie Banderas brought us the brunette dumb moment at Fox News. The self-important anchor asked an embarrassed co-host and their viewers to look at head shot of herself and a very plain man—guys are getting uglier and luckier. If you look closer, was the inference, you’d see not two, but three people. Thus the nation learned that A Child Would Be Born to A Really Dumb Brunette.

Update II (Nov. 17): It gets rather confusing when, with the approval of the Republican coterie of Fox News—and unchallenged on CNN—Carrie Prejean gets to lump herself with Michelle Bachmann as a brilliant conservative woman maligned by media. Conservatives had better take care to separate their bimbos from their firebrands.

Life Under The Big Government Party

Democrats, Healthcare, Liberty, Regulation, Republicans

Andrew Napolitano:

“Congress recognizes no limits on its power. It doesn’t care about the Constitution, it doesn’t care about your inalienable rights. If this health care bill becomes law, America, life as you have known it, freedom as you have exercised it and privacy as you have enjoyed it will cease to be.”

“Tomorrow, the House of Representatives will vote on a 2,000 page bill to give the federal government the power to micromanage the health care of every single American. The bill will no doubt pass. It will raise your taxes, steal your freedom, invade your privacy, and ration your health care. Even the Republicans have introduced their version of Obamacare Lite. It, too, if passed, will compel employers to provide coverage, bribe the states to change their court rules, and tell insurance companies whom to insure.”

“We do not have two political parties in this country, America. We have one party; called the Big Government Party. The Republican wing likes deficits, war, and assaults on civil liberties. The Democratic wing likes wealth transfer, taxes, and assaults on commercial liberties. Both parties like power; and neither is interested in your freedoms. Think about it. Government is the negation of freedom. Freedom is your power and ability to follow your own free will and your own conscience. The government wants you to follow the will of some faceless bureaucrat.”

“When I recently asked Congressman James Clyburn, the third ranking Democrat in the House, to tell me ‘Where in the Constitution the federal government is authorized to regulate everyone’s healthcare’—he replied that most of what Congress does is not authorized by the Constitution, but they do it anyway. There you have it. Congress recognizes no limits on its power. It doesn’t care about the Constitution, it doesn’t care about your inalienable rights, it doesn’t care about the liberties protected by the Bill of Rights, it doesn’t even read the laws it writes.”

“America, this is not an academic issue. If this health care bill becomes law, life as you have known it, freedom as you have exercised it, privacy as you have enjoyed it, will cease to be.”

“When Congress takes away our freedoms, they will be gone forever. What will you do to prevent this from happening?”

FOXNews.com– November 06, 2009

Let your representative know how you expect him or her to vote. Contacts can be obtained here.

Update III: Where’s Obama’s Midas Touch?

Democrats, Elections, Politics, Republicans, States' Rights

Obama stumped energetically in the two governor races in which the Democrats have lost miserably:

Conservative Republican Bob McDonnell’s victory in the Virginia governor’s race over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds and moderate Republican Chris Christie’s ouster of unpopular New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine was a double-barreled triumph for a party looking to rebuild after being booted from power in national elections in 2006 and 2008.

The Obama mediacrats are worried sick: Is the Republican’s victory a referendum on Obama’s polices? Or so they’ve been quizzing themselves throughout the day. As much as the Obama media has tried to console itself to the contrary, the conclusion is inescapable.

I did want to see Conservative Doug Hoffman, for the 23rd Congressional District of New York, win in the historic challenge, but it seems he’s trailing Owens (D) by about 4 percentage points.

For the rest, I don’t have a dog in the fight.

Update I (Nov. 4): ABC: “Bill Owens defeated Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, in a race that highlighted fractures inside the GOP that resulted in the Republican candidate dropping out of the race and endorsing Owens.”

It was close: Owens’ 49.3% to Hoffman’s 45.2%. And you’re talking about the atrophying, socialist New York!

Update II: Not yet a year after the elated election of a messiah-like figure who won some unlikely traditionally conservative states, the tide is turning. Yet, as MSNBC, the megaphone of that messiah reports,

“The White House distanced itself Wednesday from Democratic losses in two states, saying the races for governor hinged on local issues and were not a referendum on President Barack Obama.”

Sadly, the fork in the road leads to a dead end: to Republicans, their fake shows of fiscal conservatism and phony promises. So this nation has doomed itself to one of two false choices.

Update III: It’s rather funny how Democrats are diminishing the significance of their election losses (Virginia and New Jersey) and exaggerating their wins (the 23rd District of NY). How do you reconcile that?