Arnold Wins! First, I don’t live in California, so this administration will be fun to watch. Second, G.W. Bush inherited a booming economy and made it much worse, but the economy and budget were in such great shape that even after the effects of Bush’s policies, the economy was only moderately bad by historical standards […]

The Arnold Economy Currently, GDP growth is modest but decent while the jobs outlook is flat at best. So far, the most apt description of this historically novel situation has been “jobless recovery”, but we may now have an even better moniker: The Arnold Economy. Blogger Barry of The Big Picture found this gem tucked […]

Colin Powell, the Kay Report, and a Little Logic NPR’s Morning Edition had an excellent story today about the Kay Report. We all know that the Kay Report found no WMDs in Iraq. But what I found more interesting were the implications regarding the containment of Iraq from 1991-2003. As NPR’s Mike Shuster put it: […]

California Update Turnout is reportedly quite high, which in a majority Democratic state, is probably good news for Davis: California voters appeared to be turning out in large numbers today for the state’s extraordinary election to decide whether Gov. Gray Davis (D) should be recalled from office and to choose one of 135 candidates vying […]

What Would Rush Say? (If he hadn’t been kicked out on his fat ass?) As you all know, Rush Limbaugh resigned (apparently after being ordered to) from ESPN’s pregame show. Now, sadly, we are left to try in vain to make sense of one of the most amazing Monday Night Football games ever — a […]

Mankiw Believes in Rubinomics Employing a startling new tactic that was surely designed to throw opponents off balance, Greg Mankiw took the unprecendented step for a Bush administration economist of sounding like an actual economist yesterday: “Naturally the budget deficit is a cause for concern,” Gregory Mankiw, chief economic adviser to President George W. Bush, […]

Leaking With a Vengeance That’s the title of this harsh story on the cover of Time. Here’s the lead paragraph She was smart and beautiful and disarming, married to a former ambassador and the 40-year-old mother of 3-year-old twins. Best of all, she had a job that let her try to save the world. At […]

Thoughts about California First, this old proverb, sometimes attributed to Ben Franklin and more recently publicized by Hunter Thompson: “In a democracy, people usually get the government they deserve, and deserve the government they get.” We’ll see what kind of government Californians deserve tomorrow. Second, a question. Is California the only state that would boot […]

Once in a Blue Moon… …someone does what he believes is the right thing even though it enrages his constituency and peers. And he knows he’ll be shredded in the press and by friend and foe alike for doing said right thing. But he does it anyway. Even less frequently, he gets credit from unexpected […]

Tom DeLay is on Board! Mr. DeLay apparently wants a full investigation of the Plame affair. At a press conference, Tom DeLay released a letter calling for an FBI investigation signed by the Republican House Leaders: Whether or not that specific story originated with the White House or its allies, clearly there is credible evidence […]