Author Archives: "Archives"

According to the Associated Press . . .

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“Two Iraqi officials say the U.S. and Iraq are close to a deal under which all American combat troops would leave by October 2010 with remaining U.S. forces gone about three years later. A U.S. official in Washington acknowledges progress has been made on the timelines for a U.S. departure but offered no firm date. Another U.S. official strongly suggested the 2010 date may be too ambitious.”

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While the silly politicians continue to debate tax increases or decreases to supposedly deal with energy and environmental problems, the voluntary sector continues to create real solutions. The latest is the 2010 Honda Hybrid which is projected to get 40 to 50 miles per gallon. We need to Downsize DC so the voluntary sector can have more resources to spend on creating real solutions.

The following daily news summary is provided courtesty of our coaltion partners at the Open Society Institute . . .

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Israel mulls military option for Iran nukes, AP, August 7, 2008

On July 16th I speculated that investment money has been sloshing from sector to sector, with the latest benefiary (then) being commodities. I also speculated that the money would soon begin sloshing back into the stock market. That seems to be happening. Oil, gold, silver, food, and other commodities are all falling, while the stock market is rising again, as is the dollar.

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Additional speculation: within 6 to 8 months money willl start to slosh back into the housing sector.

We want to shift resources from the political sector to the voluntary sector, for very good reasons. While politicians are urging people to save gas by inflating their tires, private innovation (the Michelin company) is working to do away with the need for air in tires altogether . . .

Courtesty of Donald J. Boudreaux at Cafe Hayek . . .

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“In 2004 . . . a gallon of gasoline retailed for about $2.00 while a barrel of oil sold for about $33. Today, oil’s price is higher by 275 percent while gasoline’s price is higher by only 100 percent.”

Our elected representatives are good at getting elected. We know this for the simple reason that they were elected. They passed the electoral test. But how much does the electoral test really tell us?

Quote of the Day:
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:::”All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
:::– attributed to Edmund Burke
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:::Subject: We got a big response on the REAL ID campaign — it points the way to the future
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:::Our message yesterday about the exchange between Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff and Governor Schweitzer of Montana got a big response. So many DC Downsizers tried to take action all at once that it overwhelmed our website. Some people had trouble sending messages as a result. We’ve fixed part of the problem, and our capacity is about to get better as we install our new servers.
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:::This is a good problem to have. Thank you to everyone who took action yesterday.
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:::The fight against the REAL ID Act points the way to the future. It used to be that the American people just rolled over and submitted every time Congress passed a bad law. No more. Now the American people are fighting back.
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:::We must do the same thing with regard to the vote on the FISA warrantless spying bill that we lost recently. Congress may think the issue is settled, but we must make sure that it is not settled.
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:::We are in negotiations with our coalition allies about the best strategy for overturning the warrantless spying law.::::::

Jeremy Rabkin, George Mason University Professor of Law, was one of the Republican, anti-impeachment experts to provide testimony at the Judiciary Committee, “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Impeachment, Non-impeachment Hearing,” on July 25, 2008. Since I’m in support of impeachment and he’s not, it might surprise you to learn that I thought he uttered the most important and spot-on statement of all the panelists.

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In his opening statement, Rabkin essentially suggested that if George W. Bush was really guilty of intentionally lying the country into war, that was an impeachable offense.

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And if that charge were true — and here’s the important part — then all the other stuff about politicizing the hiring and firing of U.S. attorneys, warrantless wiretapping, using signing statements to violate the laws passed by Congress, and so on, were all sideshows. (I’ve tried to find both video or a free transcript online; C-SPAN moved/removed just the portion that included Rabkin’s opening statement.)

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The sin of lying the country into war such that 4,100 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died is so heinous that every other charge dilutes this essential point. This one argument, were it valid, would deserve an impeachment hearing all to itself.

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Of course, Rabkin thought that anyone who could imagine that Bush or any President could do such a thing was “demented.” But that demonstrates that Rabkin lacks imagination.

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It also shows that Rabkin doesn’t think too highly of the Founding Fathers who designed a government based on suspicion of power. Suspicion is, after all, merely a particular form of imagination. I can only imagine what bad things Rabkin says in private about someone like Lord Acton, who was demented enough to suggest that, “power tends to corrupt.”

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Instead,

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Quote of the Day:
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:::“Do you want our government to have the ability to track where you went, how you went, how you got there and when you got home? It would be naïve for someone to think this information will not be abused in the future. Virtually every decade these kinds of files have been used to violate people’s privacy.”
:::– Brian Schweitzer, Governor of Montana
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:::Subject: Chertoff threatens governor, governor threatens Chertoff
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:::We knew that the state of Montana was resisting the REAL ID Act, but we just learned some of the details of that resistance. The story is so good we had to share it, in case you hadn’t heard . . .
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:::Brian Schweitzer, the governor of Montana, wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. The letter informed Chertoff that Montana would not be complying with the REAL ID Act. Our quote of the day supplies one of the reasons for Governor Schweitzer’s rebellion. In response to the letter . . .
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:::Secretary Chertoff called Governor Schweitzer and threatened him.::::::