Archive for October, 2006
How to shoot yourself in the leg
The last thing the democrats needs are stupid statement like this. I don’t think it will change the election’s results but why to give Karl Rove a weapon?
Technorati Tags: Mid-term Election - John Kerry
The sinners factor
I had once a teacher that use the tell us that a good question is the a question he knows how to answer. Following the same logic a good column is one that I agree with, and this column in the New York Times (Requires registration) is a very good column:
Libertarian voters tend to get ignored by political strategists because they’re not easy to categorize or organize. They don’t congregate in churches or union halls; they don’t unite to push political agendas. Many don’t even call themselves libertarians, although they qualify because of their social liberalism and economic conservatism: they want the government out of their bedrooms as well as their wallets.
They distrust moral busybodies of both parties, and they may well be the most important bloc of swing voters this election, as David Boaz and David Kirby conclude in a new study for the Cato Institute. Analyzing a variety of voter surveys, they estimate that libertarians make up about 15 percent of voters — a bloc roughly comparable in size to liberals and to conservative Christians, and far bigger than blocs like Nascar dads or soccer moms.
And I definitely agree with this conclusion:
This year, with Republicans in so much trouble in the West, the missionaries from Washington aren’t doing them any favors. They need every sinner’s vote they can get.
Technorati Tags: Libertarians - Big Government - Social Conservatives - Mid-Term Elections
Abandoning the GOP
First the Libertarian start abandoning the GOP, now it seems that sane conservatives can’t swallow the compassionate conservatism anymore:
In every area of domestic and foreign policy, the conservatives controlling the Republican Party have expropriated the central tenets of the left, while claiming to be an alternative. This has created a false alternative to the political left, posing as its opposite but supporting the same basic goals. This has sowed massive confusion in people’s minds, and limited the American people to a choice of poisons. This confusion is undermining people’s capacity to even conceive of a true alternative to the welfare state and military defeat.
The matter becomes all the more urgent , and the consequences more dangerous, when motivated by a civic religion and its claims to supernatural sanction.
Technorati Tags: GOP - Big Government - Social Conservatism - Compassionate Conservatism - Libertarinism - Capitalism
Who will win these votes?
This is interesting, and disturbing, phenomena: despite the fact the overwhelming majority of the public wants the government to do less, both parties practices promoting the opposite. I wonder if and when someone will know how to capitalized on these voters:
A quarter century after the Reagan revolution and a dozen years after Republicans vaulted into control of Congress, a new CNN poll finds most Americans still agree with the bedrock conservative premise that, as the Gipper put it, “government is not the answer to our problems — government is the problem.”
The poll released Friday also showed that an overwhelming majority of Americans perceive, correctly, that the size and cost of government have gone up in the past four years, when Republicans have had a grip on the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House.
Discretionary spending grew from $649 billion in fiscal year 2001 to $968 billion in fiscal year 2005, an increase of $319 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Queried about their views on the role of government, 54 percent of the 1,013 adults polled said they thought it was trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses. Only 37 percent said they thought the government should do more to solve the country’s problems.
I only wish the Libertarian party will find the way to get some of these voters, this might cause the other parties to realize that libertarians notions are popular enough to be the different between winning or loosing elections.
Technorati Tags: Big Government - Libertarian party - Libertarianism
An inconvenient theory
In a discussion during the weekend someone pointed out that it is hard to get worried about global warming, although the movie An inconvenient truth is very powerful, considering the fact that only 30 years ago we were supposed to worry about global cooling :
In April, 1975, in an issue mostly taken up with stories about the collapse of the American-backed government of South Vietnam, NEWSWEEK published a small back-page article about a very different kind of disaster. Citing "ominous signs that the earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically," the magazine warned of an impending "drastic decline in food production." Political disruptions stemming from food shortages could affect "just about every nation on earth." Scientists urged governments to consider emergency action to head off the terrible threat of . . . well, if you had been following the climate-change debates at the time, you’d have known that the threat was: global cooling.
Technorati Tags: global warming - global cooling - scientific theories
Your tax money at work
If you wonder how is your tax money being used, here is a great example:
So State Comptroller Alan Hevesi hit the jackpot on Sunday, when he revealed that 198 of New York State’s Level 3 (or high-risk) sex offenders are getting Viagra through Medicaid. Giving erection-inducing meds to people who may have sexually assaulted someone seems, well, dumb.
Now I know that someone might argue that you should not judge the system by anecdotal mistakes, but I think that this is a great example to what happens when you stop thinking about the tax money as belong to the tax payers…
Technorati Tags: Taxes - Libertarianism
The flower and the ladybug
As always, more pictures can be found here.
The Flower:
The Ladybug:
Technorati Tags: Tseela - Ronie - Halloween - With Friends
Missing the point
Michael J. Fox’s Election Ad about stem cell research inflamed the controversy regarding the issue of government’s funded stem cell research. However the nature of public debates is to paint any debate with sensation.
It is sad to see Michael J. Fox suffering from this horrible disease, and the use that the supporter of government’s funded research doing with his sickness is completely legitimate. However, and although they are unable to deliver it correctly, the conservatives has a good point. Simply put when you subjected scientific research to government funds you made it depend on the majority’s vote. Therefore if the majority of American do not want to support stem cell research, for what ever reason, it is their money and its their rights.
The mistake that we are making is that we subject scientific research to popular vote at all. Going after the "easy" money - that our tax money, invites the money owners to get involved. Since I believe that stem cell research is fundamentally important I hope that it will be done without any government involvement at all.
I don’t want the government to use my tax money for things that I strongly against, Like funding anti-abortion campaign abroad. I also understand why someone religious wouldn’t want the government to use his money against things he strongly against, like stem-cell research. Arguing that the majority rule is very fragile, mostly when the majority tend to not agree with my set of values, and therefore I argue that the only solution is to limit the government (or the public) variety of issues to the decide against my values.
Technorati Tags: stem cell research - government funded research - Michael J. Fox - Mid Term Elections
Unaware
Unaware of the political turmoil in Israel, Ronie was busy today making her first attempts in walking and climbing the steps… More pictures can be found here.
Technorati Tags: Ronie - First Steps - Growing Up
Maybe not so bad
The noise in Israel about the latest change in the composition of the coalition shouldn’t surprise anyone. Moreover, the turmoil and the public unrest about the joining of Avigdor Liberman, The right wing extremist leader, is an indicator for healthy reactions.
As most of the people that are unhappy with Liberman I’m worried about excepting his extreme right ideology into the mainstream of the political discussion. However I see several possible advantage in the move that brought Liberman into the government.
It is interesting phenomena - being in position with actual responsibility, it has moderating and cooling effect that bring with it very interesting historical moves. We observe the moderating effect on de Gaulle, Begin and Sharon - each of them commit historical abandon of territories, which was in opposite for the agenda they represent before elected. The same hopes for moderation were expressed when the Hamas was elected by the Palestinian.
But I have more than a hope for the turning of Liberman into a typical political opportunist. I tend to believe that Liberman made a critical mistake, which Netanyaho, his right wing rival, will exploit in the next election. By joining the government Liberman becoming part of the failures and neglects of the government. Becoming a minister makes him, in the public opinion, responsible for the deeds of the government, which is one of the least popular in the history of Israel. Instead of waiting in the opposition for the next election and riding on the waves of repulsiveness toward the current government, Liberman joined the same crowd.
One might worry that Liberman might in his position, as the minister responsible for strategic threats - what ever that is, be able to promote his agenda. However this is also naive notion that ignore political rivalry and bureaucratic tendency to resist changes. If someone believe that Peretz, the Labor party leader and the minister of defense, will give up on any power that he hold in favor of the new ministry, or that the bureaucrats of the ministry of defense will loosen the grip on any power they hold, they need a serious reality check.
One can Fault Olmert, the Israeli PM, for many things. But it is well known that he is an experience and competent politician. Peretz, as well, isn’t the best minister of defense Israel ever had - but he is an experienced politician who mastered his skills in the unions - a tough school for real politick. Being in the government with these two isn’t the best recipe for successes for Liberman, as he probably going to find out.
Technorati Tags: Israel - Political realities - Coalition - Liberman - Olmert - Peretz