Redstate

Posted at 11:45am on Jul. 10, 2008 Public-Private Partnerships

By simpson316

The Future for Missouri (And Any Other State that Wants Them)

Rapidly increasing gas prices are hurting consumers everywhere. Missouri is no exception. One of the effects (I’ll let the reader decide for themselves if it is positive or negative) is that people have begun to drive less. Less driving leads to less gas purchased. Less purchased gas equals less state revenue via the gas sales tax. This has lead to an interesting dilemma for many states on how to fund road projects, bridges, and other transportation projects. States are searching for alternatives.

Posted in Policy — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 6:11pm on Jul. 9, 2008 52 Retired Generals and Admirals Call for Repeal of Gay Ban

By PhxG

Sometimes when looking at the complexities of the nation we lose sight of how the leftist agenda is focused and determined to push their ideals onto every person and institution in this great nation. Yesterday, a liberal policy group produced a letter to Congress to repeal the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. Regardless of your personal position on the matter of DADT, here is a group of leftists trying to push their ideals onto an institution which has no similarity with the civilian world.

Posted in Policy — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:16pm on Jul. 8, 2008 Upset About The World Food Crisis?

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Be sure to thank governments around the world for bringing it about. Those who place an excessive reliance on the heavy hand of the State to solve various policy problems ought to be made aware of this massive transnational governmental failure. Perhaps it will give those people pause before they advocate yet another expansion of governmental power.

I can dream, can't I?

Posted in Policy | The Food Price/Inflation Crisis — Comments (3)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:04pm on Jul. 8, 2008 Cynical Observation Of The Day

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

It really would be interesting to see just how fervently Henry Waxman would be pushing his latest pet cause if Barack Obama got elected President and wanted to give a Democratic version of Karl Rove some prime West Wing office space. My guess is that Waxman would somehow, suddenly find different projects with which to occupy his time.

Politics is an inherent part of governing. I am sorry that this upsets Waxman, but he will be about as successful in taking politics out of governing as he would be in taking the wet out of water.

Posted in Policy | Politics And Government Are Interrelated — Comments (0)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:28pm on Jul. 8, 2008 T. Boone Pickens on Energy Policy

By kowalski

Very briefly, I'd like to alert everyone -- through a shameless act of cross-promotion (or what Mr. Pickens might refer to as "...merging with routes that were contiguous to me...") -- that there's a discussion going on over at TMR concerning T. Boone Pickens' energy policy suggestions. I've already commented in the thread in a number of different "voices" and so I'd like to Kowalski myself and mention it here -- for anyone who is interested:

Posted in Policy — Comments (27) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:51pm on Jul. 2, 2008 Government Run Healthcare: In “Crisis”

By simpson316

Allow me to introduce you to Claude Castonguay. Mr. Castonguay is known as the father of Canadian Medicare. In the 1960s he was tasked by the Canadian government to examine the state of Canada’s health care system. After the Castonguay-Nepveu Commission on Health Care and Services released its report, the government of Quebec made sweeping changes to the health care system. The control of the health care system was removed from the hands of the clergy and placed in the care of the Quebec government.

Over the course of the last four decades since the report has been issued, the governments in Canada have continued to maintain their hold on the system. As a result, Canadian hospitals, clinics, and doctors offices have seen astounding wait times for visits, surgeries, etc. To Mr. Castonguay’s credit, he has taken note of these problems. Mr. Castonguay has again been asked to review the state of the health care system. This time, his recommendations are very different.

Four decades later, as the chairman of a government committee reviewing Quebec health care this year, Castonguay concluded that the system is in "crisis."

"We thought we could resolve the system's problems by rationing services or injecting massive amounts of new money into it,[ed. - sound familiar?]" says Castonguay. But now he prescribes a radical overhaul: "We are proposing to give a greater role to the private sector so that people can exercise freedom of choice."

“Freedom of choice.”

What an absolutely phenomenal concept. In those three small words, Mr. Castonguay has summed the biggest argument against universal health care. When the government controls, there is no freedom of choice. As American citizens, freedom is a virtue that we hold very dear to our hearts. Look to this upcoming weekend when we will celebrate 232 years of our struggle to maintain and promote freedom. Heed the message of Mr. Castonguay: “give a greater role to the private sector.” Don’t allow the proponents of universal health care to take away our freedom of choice.

Posted in Policy — Comments (6) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:09am on Jun. 28, 2008 A question we all know the answer to

By Neil Stevens

Are all the people who support publicly-funded abortions on the grounds that the Supreme Court declared abortion a right, now going to support publicly-funded handguns on the grounds that the Supreme Court affirmed gun ownership as an indivdiual right?

Posted at 6:18pm on Jun. 26, 2008 No Talent Need Apply

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

George Will has a habit of getting to the nub of an issue. He displays that habit anew when discussing American policy that essentially sanctions and encourages a brain drain from the United States:

Modernity means the multiplication of dependencies on things utterly mysterious to those who are dependent -- things such as semiconductors, which control the functioning of almost everything from cellphones to computers to cars. "The semiconductor," says a wit who manufactures them, "is the OPEC of functionality, except it has no cartel power." Semiconductors are, like oil, indispensable to the functioning of many things that are indispensable. Regarding oil imports, Americans agonize about a dependence they cannot immediately reduce. Yet their nation's policy is the compulsory expulsion or exclusion of talents crucial to the creativity of the semiconductor industry that powers the thriving portion of our bifurcated economy. While much of the economy sputters, exports are surging, and the semiconductor industry is America's second-largest exporter, close behind the auto industry in total exports and the civilian aircraft industry in net exports.

The semiconductor industry's problem is entangled with a subject about which the loquacious presidential candidates are reluctant to talk -- immigration, specifically that of highly educated people. Concerning whom, U.S. policy should be: A nation cannot have too many such people, so send us your PhDs yearning to be free.

Instead, U.S. policy is: As soon as U.S. institutions of higher education have awarded you a PhD, equipping you to add vast value to the economy, get out. Go home. Or to Europe, which is responding to America's folly with "blue cards" to expedite acceptance of the immigrants America is spurning.

Two-thirds of doctoral candidates in science and engineering in U.S. universities are foreign-born. But only 140,000 employment-based green cards are available annually, and 1 million educated professionals are waiting -- often five or more years -- for cards. Congress could quickly add a zero to the number available, thereby boosting the U.S. economy and complicating matters for America's competitors.

Don Boudreaux performs the valuable service of giving us some of the historical and theoretical arguments underpinning Will's column. And as Will makes clear, neither Barack Obama nor John McCain have distinguished themselves by talking about this issue and by seeking to do something about this parlous state of policy. McCain will want to remedy that situation quickly and show himself to be more technologically forward-thinking than Obama. He could do worse than to take Will's column and Professor Boudreaux's post and use it as a constant talking point on the campaign trail.

There are some issues that are important enough to be inserted into a stump speech and indeed, to become stump speech mainstays. This is such an issue.

Posted in Policy | Stopping The Great American Brain Drain — Comments (7)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:34pm on Jun. 25, 2008 Reviving The So-Called "Fairness Doctrine"

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

I'll make this short: The Speaker of the House is in favor of the plan. But actually reviving the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" is an immensely bad idea. Here's why.

Posted at 10:15pm on Jun. 20, 2008 The FISA Bill And Its Political Ramifications

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

An agreement on surveillance legislation has been concluded between Congress and the Bush Administration. The details of that legislation can be found here:

The agreement extends the government's ability to eavesdrop on espionage and terrorism suspects while effectively providing a legal escape hatch for AT&T, Verizon Communications and other telecom firms. They face more than 40 lawsuits that allege they violated customers' privacy rights by helping the government conduct a warrantless spying program after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

[. . .]

Under the surveillance agreement, which is expected to be approved today by the House and next week by the Senate, telecoms could have privacy lawsuits thrown out if they show a federal judge that they received written assurance from the Bush administration that the spying was legal.

The proposal marks a compromise by Republicans and the Bush administration, which had opposed giving federal judges any significant role in granting legal immunity to the phone companies.

The legislation also would require court approval of procedures for intercepting telephone calls and e-mails that pass through U.S.-based servers -- another step that the White House and GOP lawmakers previously resisted.

"It is the result of compromise, and like any compromise it is not perfect, but I believe it strikes a sound balance," said House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (Md.), the lead Democratic negotiator in talks between lawmakers and the White House.

But overall, the deal appears to give Bush and his aides, including Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, much of what they sought in a new surveillance law.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto called the measure "a bipartisan bill" that "will give the intelligence professionals the long-term tools they need to protect the nation, and liability protection for those who may have assisted the government after the 9/11 attacks."

Read on . . .

Posted in Barack Obama | Policy | Surveillance Policy | The Great Netroots Betrayal — Comments (4)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:02pm on Jun. 20, 2008 Barack Obama On School Vouchers

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

The flip-flopping continues--and at an almost unbelievable rate.

Posted at 4:28pm on Jun. 20, 2008 Dodd/Frank, Barack Obama, and Judgement

By mike volpe

Last month, Barack Obama made another in a series of speeches in Las Vegas on the mortgage crisis. Buried within the speech was a line that was of little importance at the time however should become quite relevant in the campaign given what we have recently found out.

To stabilize our housing market and to bring this crisis to an end, I’m a strong supporter of Chris Dodd and Barney Frank’s proposal to create a new FHA Housing Security Program. This will provide meaningful incentives for lenders to buy or refinance existing mortgages, and to convert them into stable 30-year fixed mortgages. This is not a windfall for borrowers – as they have to share any capital gain. It’s not a bailout for lenders or investors who gambled recklessly – as they will take losses. It asks both sides to sacrifice. It offers a responsible and fair way to help Americans who are facing foreclosure to keep their homes at rates they can afford.

Posted in Policy — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:22pm on Jun. 19, 2008 Memo To Congress

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Be like Jed Bartlet. Do the right thing.

Posted at 10:21pm on Jun. 19, 2008 Quotes That Catch My Fancy

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Bastiat always did have a way with words.