Jonah Goldberg: Fourteen months into his presidency, in March 2010, Obama succeeded in muscling through Congress a partial government takeover of the national health-care system. That legislative accomplishment followed Obama’s decision a year earlier, without congressional approval, to nationalize two of the country’s Big Three automobile companies. In the intervening months, he had also imposed specific wage ceilings on employees at banks that had taken federal bailout money—the first such

Peter Berkowitz, Policy Review: […] it was Obama’s decision — against the advice of several of his closest advisers — to seek comprehensive health care reform in the face of an historic economic crisis and to resolutely pursue it month after month despite vocal majority opposition instead of concentrating on reviving the economy and creating jobs that sent a loud and clear message that the president placed progressive political transformation

Stanley Kurtz responds to David Frum and William Galston, whose new organization, No Labels, seeks to set a kind of pre-determined political speech perimeter, with Frum and liberal activist Galston helpfully setting the boundaries for acceptable public utterance. That is, Frum and Galston want to replace the classically liberal ideas of free speech and tolerance with the idea of Frum and Galston-approved speech, which by dint of its approval by

Started strong last week, only to end with a fizzle: 10/16. For the year, 111/177. I need to finish very strong, having fallen from the 97th percentile all the way down to the 89th. Which means I need to take chances on a number upset choices. So, for those of you who look at my picks rather than the picks of actual NFL experts, here we go: Philly over Houston

My son has a wrestling meet today at a gym over 90 miles from the homestead. So I’ll be on the road for quite awhile and elbow deep in breakfast burritos. In the interim, I’m leaving the keys to the place with the dolphin in the pea coat, who returned last week from parts unknown with a spanking new four inch scar on his cheek and a sudden and visceral

WSJ: Debates over taxes and spending are at root about political philosophy: How big should government be? How much income should it redistribute, and to whom? We mention this to explain why today’s report from President Obama’s deficit commission is landing with such a predictable political thud. This doesn’t mean that Co-Chairmen Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles haven’t offered some useful ideas, much better ideas overall than we feared. As

Yeah. Who didn’t see this coming. Or this. As the UN goes, here’s my position: Nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

I intimated this in an earlier post, but here’s a bit more to chew on. From F. Vincent Vernuccio, writing in The Daily Caller: While Obama’s plan would stop the annual across-the-board cost of living adjustment (COLA) for all federal workers, it will not stop workers from getting raises altogether. The freeze will not affect pay raises for job classification upgrades. As an official at the Office of Management and

Bloomberg: Employers added fewer jobs than forecast in November and the unemployment rate unexpectedly rose, underscoring the Federal Reserve’s decision to pump more money into the economy to spur growth. Payrolls increased 39,000, less than the most pessimistic projection of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, after a revised 172,000 increase the prior month, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The jobless rate rose to 9.8 percent, the highest since

You have my promise: no ant-covered Jesuses that aren’t funded entirely by your generous private donations will appear here. Unless the government pays me big bucks to put one up. In which case, all bets are off. Pragmatism. update: About half way there this month. Thanks to those of you who’ve contributed thus far! Wednesday update: I’ll let this go another couple days. Thanks to all who’ve given. Don’t know