Krugman And Principles… Like Oil And Water

An amazing admission from Paul Krugman:

As for what I wrote in 1996: the world looked very different then. On one side, Social Security projections were much more pessimistic than they are now, basically because the projections assumed that the 1973-1995 era of very slow productivity growth would go on forever. On the other side, the 90s were the era of the great pause in health expenditures, the (it turned out) brief era in which the rise of managed care stabilized health spending as a share of GDP. So Medicare and Medicaid looked less important as sources of fiscal problems than they do now.

John Maynard Keynes is supposed to have said, “When circumstances change, I change my opinion. What do you do?”

There it is,  friends, Paul Krugman has never argued from principle in his entire life, and this proves it.  What he is rather argued from, is convenience. when conditions change, he changes his argument to match.  The idea of principle never enters his lexicon.

Bryan at HotAir

 And he says this as tangible progress is being made toward victory.

The Washington Times has led on this story all day and now provides video along with a roundup of reaction.

This week, around our Thanksgiving tables, there will be two families: One who say they support the troops, and they do, but they have sacrificed very little. They haven’t had their taxes raised, they haven’t been drafted, and they don’t really participate in the war. The other are military families who have husbands and wives, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters in the war theater. It’s them who shoulder the burden of the President’s Iraq policy. America owes them our thanks in this Thanksgiving weekend.

So having your taxes raised somehow makes your support for the war more special? All that does is give Jack more of everyone else’s money to play with. To call him “contemptible” is to define that word down.

(Shrug) I figure Murtha has his own circle of hell waiting for him. With the hole he’s been digging for himself, he’s halfway there.

Right Wing News reminds us why John McCain isn’t fit for the office of President:

“If you don’t agree with the “Gang of 14″ solution then I am not your candidate and you should vote for someone else.” — John McCain

Fade to black.

Uh-Oh… It appears DiFi is up to her knees in serious trouble with her own supporters. Says Michelle:

The nutroots are unhinged over Calif. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s recent votes to confirm Bush attorney general Michael Mukasey and federal appeals court judge Leslie Southwick. Far left members of the Democrat Party in the Golden State attempted to introduce a censure measure over the weekend. It failed, but the rabid liberal base of the Democrat party has only just begun. The “Courage Campaign” is chaired by a HuffPo radical and counts among its partners, “MoveOn.org, Democracy For America, New Progressive Coalition, Powerpac.org, CalPIRG, California Nurses Association, Common Cause, Brave New Films and Progressive Majority.” It’s a 527 with a Beverly Hills mailing address, purporting to represent the grass-roots, and it’s promising to be the California Democrats’ worst nightmare.

Any lack of proof that the far left are total idiots and their own worst enemy has now been dealt with… we lack such proof no longer.  I hate to tell these morons, since there’s a chance, remote though it be, that they might actually wake up and change direction…. but they’re only damaging themselves.  Assuming they manage to get DiFi out, will the person they try to replace her with make it past the general election?

No. The people of California, as a whole, are not nearly as stupid as the MoveOn types, and simply will not elect someone of which the MoveOn crowd approves. It’s really that simple.

While you and I know this quite well, they don’t. Which means that seat will have a Republican in it next term.

So for the moment, I’ll cheer for MoveOn’s efforts, with an enigmatic smile on my face.

COALITION FORCES FIND EXECUTION SITE, LARGE CACHE; EIGHT KILLED, 13 DETAINED

Posted: 19 Nov 2007 12:09 PM CST

COALITION FORCES FIND EXECUTION SITE, LARGE CACHE; EIGHT KILLED, 13 DETAINED

IRAQI FORCES, U.S. SPECIAL FORCES DETAIN TWO EXTREMISTS IN AS SA’DIYAH

Posted: 19 Nov 2007 10:44 AM CST

IRAQI FORCES, U.S. SPECIAL FORCES DETAIN TWO EXTREMISTS IN AS SA’DIYAH

ARMY ENGINEERS TURNS OVER AL-GARMA 132 KILOVOLT SUBSTATION TO IRAQI MINISTRY OF ELECTRICITY

Posted: 19 Nov 2007 10:39 AM CST

ARMY ENGINEERS TURNS OVER AL-GARMA 132 KILOVOLT SUBSTATION TO IRAQI MINISTRY OF ELECTRICITY

COALITION FORCES KILL ONE TERRORIST, TARGET CRIMINAL ELEMENT NETWORKS

Posted: 19 Nov 2007 10:35 AM CST

COALITION FORCES KILL ONE TERRORIST, TARGET CRIMINAL ELEMENT NETWORKS

FORMER EXTREMIST LEADS JOINT FORCES TO HUGE WEAPONS CACHE

Posted: 19 Nov 2007 10:33 AM CST

FORMER EXTREMIST LEADS JOINT FORCES TO HUGE WEAPONS CACHE

Lest anyone think the Oil for Food business has gone away, The NY SUN will disabuse you of that notion straight away:

A Switzerland-based oil trading company has pleaded guilty to paying $13 million in kickbacks to the Iraqi government in violation of the U.N. oil-for-food program’s rules, the Manhattan district attorney, Robert Morgenthau, announced yesterday.

Vitol S.A. allowed the kickbacks to continue between June 2001 and September 2002 but did not report them to the United Nations, according to a release from Mr. Morgenthau’s office.

I suppose part of the problem with getting this story out is that there were so many pigs at the trough, it’s rather hard to know where to begin and end. The public can’t seem to get it’s arms around the story, so vast was the corruption involved.  And that’s sad, because if they knew the scope of the issue, they’d have demanded our removing ourselves from the UN years ago. Such is the legacy of Kofi Anon.

Jim Wren, who runs PoliSat.com, passes this one along...

It’s video…. great stuff.

(Side note to Jim… You’re better off using the feedback address.)

An elderly couple had dinner at another couple’s house, and after eating, the wives left the table and went into the kitchen.
The two gentlemen were talking, and one said, “Last night we went out to a new restaurant and it was really great. I would recommend it very highly.”
The other man said, “What is the name of the restaurant?”
The first man thought and thought and finally said, “What is the name of that flower you give to someone you love?
You know… The one that’s red and has thorns.”
“Do you mean a rose?”
“Yes, that’s the one,” replied the man. He then turned towards the kitchen and yelled, “Rose, what’s the name of that restaurant we went to last night?”

If you want to know what the Democratic presidential candidates and the Democratic Party believe, the debates, often derided as intellectually inconsequential, reveal a great deal. The problem is that news media almost never report the most important statements the candidates make.

That is Dennis Prager the other day .at Townhall.com.

From this point he goes on to list all of the various candidates, and at least one flaw in each of their positions. Here’s a few:

John Edwards on Americans going hungry: “Thirty-five million Americans last year went hungry. . . .This [election] is about those 35 million people who are hungry every single year.”

There is no truth to this charge against America. The only basis for it is a U.S. Department of Agriculture Report saying that about 35 million Americans experienced “household food insecurity” in 2006. That term does not, the USDA emphasized, mean hunger, but being forced to reduce “variety in their diets” or eat a “few basic foods” at various times of the year. If a country could sue for libel, America would have cause to sue Mr. Edwards.

…

Dennis Kucinich on giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants: “I take issue with your description of people being illegal immigrants. There aren’t any illegal human beings, that’s number one.”

Who ever said anything about “illegal human beings”? “Illegal immigrant” describes one’s immigration status, not one’s humanity. Such a statement embarrasses public discourse.

…
Hillary Clinton (discussing Pakistan) on the link between democracy in an Islamic country and American security: “There’s absolutely a connection between a democratic regime and heightened security for the United States.”

Isn’t that precisely what President Bush has been saying for years about Iraq? And isn’t that idea exactly what Democrats have held in contempt?
…

You get the idea, I suspect. It’s a worthy read which I commend to you today. hefty yet been reading, though, I’d like you think about something; there are merely the presidential candidates.  Can you imagine what the Congress critters of the Democratic Party are saying? What kind of nonsense are they laying on the voter?

I doubt Tony Blankley reads Bitsblog, but he acts as if he did.   In the Washington Times, Blankley questions Mrs. Clinton’s experience:  

Having spent much of my adult life in politics, it would be silly at this late date to be shocked by the discovery of insincerity and misleading statements coming from leading candidates for president. But if I have seen too much of the world to be shocked, at least I can still be appalled. And, the gentle lady, the junior senator from the Empire State, continues to appall.

Consider the following Associated Press story from earlier this week: “The economy needs help and fast, Hillary Rodham Clinton declared Monday, claiming the experience for the job and saying the nation can’t afford to break in a newcomer… There is one job we can’t afford on-the-job training for — our next president. That could be the costliest job training in history,” Mrs. Clinton said. “Every day spent learning the ropes is another day of rising costs, mounting deficits and growing anxiety for our families. And they cannot afford to keep waiting.”

Tony you forget Mrs. Clinton’s experience dealing with Bimbo Eruptions.

Hat Tip  Lucianne.

Dale Franks, this morning notes that while Ron Paul has come out with a statement about racism. And Dale, analytical type that he is, parses the statement out and finds it wanting:

Mr. Paul seems to be making the old argument that “government is the problem”. And all to often that argument is true. But, again, all to often, the problem is people themselves. And government, whatever its virtues or vices, does not solve the problems that arise from human nature. Neither, for that matter, does liberty. To argue otherwise is to argue for the perfection of man through political means. And that, my friends, is the very basis of collectivism.

Finally, I have to say that one can derive an uncomplimentary subtext to this message. And it is not one that that white supremacists, on the whole, will object to. Because the message I’m sure they’ll get from Mr. Paul’s statement is, “I’ll stop giving your tax money to the…” well, you know.

So in other words, Paul tried to defuse the problem, but because he’s trying not to offend the racists who support him, nothing earthshaking happened, here.  And we’re still left where we were the other day… wondering how it is that Ron Paul gets a pass on this stuff.

We’re still left with Ron Paul’s history as a PLO supporter 

We’re still left with Ron Paul’s history of being anti-Israel

We’re still left with Ron Paul appearing repeatedly on the the radio show of the Tinfoil King, Alex Jones.

We are still left with the fact that Ron Paul embraced the American Free Press,  which is a parent publication  of the Neo-Nazi Barnes Review.

We’re still left with Ron Paul calling our troops murderers.

In short, we’re still left with the same problems that Ron Paul has always brought to the table… and this poor excuse for a statement solved nothing.

So, today… Just today… we find out that Edwards and Kerry never really got along during their campaign in ’04. And this from the New York Times, no less:

To the end of their disappointing run, the two men were unable to agree on the script, whether for slogans or more substantive matters. And like so many political marriages, the one between Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards — Senate colleagues who became rivals then running mates but never really friends — ended in recrimination and regrets.

Kerry aides complain that Mr. Edwards never stopped running for president — a Democratic Party official recalled some aides wearing “Edwards for President” pins at a fund-raiser long after they were working for the Kerry-Edwards ticket. Kerry supporters say Mr. Edwards refused to play the traditional vice-presidential role of attack dog even going up against a purebred, Dick Cheney. And Mr. Kerry had barely conceded the race, they say, before Mr. Edwards was aiming for 2008 and embarking on what one campaign aide called the “it wasn’t my fault tour” around his home state to distance himself from the loss.

And so, the obvious question erupts: How is it we’re just now finding out about this friction? Why would the vaunted, and suppsoedly unbiased press, not have advised the country at the time, of this division between the two men, when they had access to the both of them during that whole process, and must ahve known tha things were not altogether on the up and up?

And don’t tell me the Mainstream Media’s running blocker on this stuff. I mean, it isn’t that the fair and unbiased MSM is protecting the good-guy image of Democrats… is it?

Couldn’t be.

More, Memeorandum

Reuters is reporting:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two separate teams of researchers announced on Tuesday they had transformed ordinary skin cells into batches of cells that look and act like embryonic stem cells — but without using cloning technology and without making embryos.

Their breakthroughs could make possible the long-sought goal of tailor-made medicine, but without the political, scientific and ethical roadblock of using human embryos.

I’ll have you read the article, because there’s a lot of ground to cover… but I have to say it’s all very hopeful. Sister Toldjah has more.

So does Memeorandum.

I want to call your attention to the advertisement on the extreme lower right of the right side column.

The ad has been run free of charge on this site because I believe seriously in the project. it’s a part of the “America supports you” project, which is a worthy effort to remind the troops we’re behind them.

Find the ad, and do what it says. It costs you nothing but time.

Yes, some of the sharper among you have noticed that the big red “Drop Cap” in the first letter of each post is gone. I removed it recently. It looked good, when it worked. Trouble is, too often, it didn’t work, and showed some really strange results. I’ll find another plugin for the purpose and see if that doesn’t work better. But for now, it’s gone.