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The Corner
- re: Powell vs. Rush
He's from Cape Girardeau, he can take it. - Powell vs. Rush
Fresh off doing everything he could to defeat Republican John McCain by endorsing Democrat Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Colin Powell is now directing his fire at Rush Limbaugh. In that interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria, Powell says: "Can we continue to listen to Rush Limbaugh? Is this really the kind of party that we want to be when these kinds of spokespersons seem to appeal to our lesser instincts rather than our better instincts?" Powell helpfully added that "There is nothing wrong with being conservative" (how gracious of him) and cautioned against just trying to appealing to African-Americans, Hispanic, and Asian voters based on "the principles and dogma." Where to begin? Perhaps by stating that I wish Colin Powell had once been as critical of Democrats who made false and malicious charges against his former boss, President Bush, as he is critical of Rush and other Republicans. It is odd when a man who votes for Barack Obama and is constantly lecturing Republicans insists he remains a Republican. Perhaps that is so his criticisms will gain greater currency. Beyond that, I rather doubt Colin Powell's bid for (non-coercive) censorship will be taken seriously by any of Rush's listeners -- a category that has apparently doesn't included Mr. Powell, whose comments evince an ignorance of Rush's program. Let's just say Limbaugh is a more popular figure in the GOP than Mr. Powell. And in fact Rush has done more (hard) work to advance conservatism than Powell, who is constantly trying to undermine it. Finally, Powell gives away the game when he downplays the importance of "principles and dogma." In fact, it is precisely an appeal to principles that makes a political party a force for good in the life of a nation. If we downplay the role of principles, politics gets reduced to a power game and appeals to sentiment and theatrics. I suspect that there are a few people in the world who, if they spoke critically of Rush, it would trouble him. I suspect Colin Powell isn't on that list. - 20 Remain (XXL Only)
Try to stuff this big honkin' shirt in a stocking - good luck! Still, the National Review Long-sleeve Navy Tee makes a great gift for the big dude in your life. Order here. (Despite the picture's symbolic cut-off of the left hand, our shirts come with both sleeves completely intact!) - Saving Ford via Twitter
Fascinating experiment going on in Twitter-land. The "hashtag alliance" #TCOT (Top Conservatives on Twitter) is responding to outreach from Ford itself to brainstorm free-market approaches to saving FoMoCo that do not involve bailout money. If this makes little sense, see here for a fuller explanation (oh, and if you want to follow me on Twitter, I'm @ismurray, not that I use it enough). If you have ideas, join in! - Post Working to Distance Obama
There's an article in today's Wasington Post, "Obama Worked to Distance Self From Blagojevich Early On." I don't doubt that's likely true as Blagojevich has long had a reputation for corruption even by Chicago standards. However, I somehow doubt the Post would go out of its way to write an article that so favorably covers for a Republican. Exhibit A: "Few people I've ever known have as good a sense about who might end up getting you in trouble," said Denny Jacobs, a retired Illinois politician from East Moline who befriended Obama when they both served in the state Senate. "It's like a sixth sense. Chicago's a mess, and he was surrounded by it. But he knew the people that could drag you down and tarnish your image." Which explains why he he so studiously avoided Tony Rezko, Jeremiah Wright, Rashid Khalidi, William Ayers, Richard M. Daley... - Ethanol Still Affecting Corn Prices
I have to take issue with something Cliff says in his home page article today demanding more mandates on the auto industry (which is more than just Detroit, we should remember.) He asserts, "Those who claimed that using some corn to make ethanol was causing higher food prices were either misinformed (any number of journalists) or lying (those paid to protect oil's monopoly)." I'm not sure whether Cliff thinks I am misinformed or lying, but the fact remains that ethanol is still causing food prices to be higher than they should be. As Cliff notes, when demand drops, prices fall, but to say that this proves ethanol had no role in increasing corn prices beggars belief. Demand was high and supply was lowered thanks to the ethanol boondoggle. Now, demand has fallen, but supply is still constrained. It is very good, of course, that the price drop means that the world's poor have some relief, but they could have yet more without the ethanol boondoggle. As University of Illinois economist Steve Irwin points out, ethanol policies are actually the dominant backstop of corn prices, preventing them getting back to the equilibrium level. It is particularly significant that they have supplanted export demand. Using corn ethanol as fuel remains a significant tax on food, with its worst effects on the poor of the world. The fact that we've gone from crazy prices to just foolish prices as a result of the recession doesn't change that. - Re: Re: Auto Bailout Lives
Back in the early autumn, those of us who opposed the massive $700B bailout plan asked (as I did in this post): "[A]re you telling me I am wrong to worry that this bill gives the Treasury Secretary unduly wide latitude to feed taxpayer money into businesses that should fail because they've been irresponsibly leveraged and utterly mismanaged?" Giving the Treasury Secretary such a free hand would have been a disastrous idea even if the free hand had been limited to throwing money at the credit markets. But already back then, as we opponents also noted, Democrats were making noises about raiding the slush fund to bail out mismanaged cities and states. Now it's going to mismanaged businesses and the UAW. Treasury won't say no even though at stake are just these three bloated companies -- it can't even be said that the auto industry is near collapse, much less the financial system. If the White House follows through and forces the taxpayers to subsidize the failure of the formerly Big Three, that will be a crushing betrayal, especially to the GOP senators who battled valiantly here. But the time to fight was back in October, when Paulson was given an unfettered license. It's not like the handwriting wasn't on the wall. Now we live with the consequences. - Despite His Seven-Percent Approval Rating ...
     CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has filed a motion with the Illinois State Supreme Court about the governor's "inability" to do his job, Madigan spokeswoman Robin Ziegler said Friday.      Madigan will hold a news conference at 11:15 a.m. (12:15 p.m. ET) about the matter, her office said. - Unbelievable
Iain, I'm getting the sense from my inbox that I chose the wrong word to express my disgust. But I don't think "typical" quite captures it either. How about, "Man, I hate it when this Bush shows up"? - Dignitas Personae
One of the great ironies of the stem cell debates of the last few years has been that some of the most serious attention to scientific detail and reality has come from Catholic circles, while some of the most wide-eyed messianic faith-healing talk has come from liberal political (and sometimes even scientific) circles. There is another example of the former today, with a new Vatican document about reproductive technologies and bioethics. I'm not a Catholic and am in no position to speak to the theological components of the document, and I don't agree with all of its conclusions (on IVF, for instance) but its treatment of the latest scientific developments and of the related ethical questions is exceptionally good, and its attitude--very pro-science and very clear about ethical boundaries and the reasons for them, with arguments that reach well beyond Catholic theology--is very impressive. The view of many of us who have argued against the destruction of embryos for research is that we ought not understand ourselves to be faced with a choice between science and ethics, but with the challenge of championing both, which is a challenge both to scientific ingenuity and to ethical reflection and argument (a case I take up, among other issues, in my recent book on science and democracy). The Bush administration's approach to the stem cell debate has been one example of how to think in these terms. This document, wherever you stand on its Catholic-specific elements, is another very worthy one