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Daily Reads

Cantor’s Rise in Resistance Movement Resembles Gingrich’s

Politics
February 16, 2009 – 7:12 am

The NYT profiles GOP Whip Eric Cantor. In typical conservatives in the mist fashion, Cantor is a “new face” despite receiving a serious look as a potential VP in 08. But in a more insightful moment, they note the parallels of Newt Gingrich’s emergence in the resistance of the early 90s with the VA Republican’s.

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Archbishop of Canterbury: Inevitability of Sharia Now a Fact of Life

News
February 16, 2009 – 7:03 am

A year ago, Archbishop Rowan Williams faced calls to resign when he claimed that it was “inevitable” that sharia law would become part of the legal authority in the UK, enforcing their own brand of harsh Islamic punishment. Williams now claims that his opinion is shared by the nation’s elite.

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Sexting: The Shiny New Thing to Scare Everyone With a Daughter

News
February 16, 2009 – 6:56 am

Technology and obscenity: you know, for the kids. Twenty percent of teens in the United States admit to sending lewd pictures of themselves or others, but a crackdown on the practice is leading to multiple arrests of high schoolers (and sometimes even younger) on child porn charges.

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Dawn of the Great Rationing? StimPack Gives Govt Say on Treatment

News
February 16, 2009 – 6:06 am

$1.1 billion in the StimPack goes to a board of 15 federal bureaucrats who will advise POTUS on performance comparisons for medical treatments, products, and drugs. Aim: Cut back on costs, experimental solutions, use the cheap and effective. Feared result: Bureaucrats monitoring your treatment, inevitable rationing.

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Geography of a Crash: How the Economic Meltdown Will Change America

Market
February 15, 2009 – 11:08 pm

Richard Florida, the professor extraordinaire and controversial theorist who once argued that the Creative Class was the key to urban prosperity, pens a powerful and fascinating essay on what the future holds for America’s key economic regions. A key point: what will become of New York?

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Geithner Gets Cold Shoulder in Europe

Market
February 15, 2009 – 11:30 am

After two days in Rome, G-7 results in more dour pronouncements. Geithner’s international financial policy experience notwithstanding, he’s playing constant defense on Admin’s bailout and stimpack as other nations shake their heads: “If the problem is an excess of debt, the cure is not adding more debt, whether that debt is public or private.”

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The Old Welfare’s Back: StimPack Unravels 1996 Reform

Politics
February 15, 2009 – 11:26 am

Massive loosening of work requirements contained in stimulus bill threatens to destroy Reagan and Clinton reforms that led to 65% lower caseloads and demonstrable social benefits, restore lax qualifications for being on the government dole.

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GM Considers Chapter 11 Filing, Plays Chicken With UAW

Market
February 15, 2009 – 11:16 am

GM attempts again to make the UAW the villain. Bankruptcy filing would cause the creation of a new company, mean that all bets are off for union. Management may have trouble getting long-term debtholders to take a 70-cent haircut, since they want the same deal as the union.

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The Emboldening: Obama’s First Big Win

Politics
February 14, 2009 – 1:13 am

After several missteps and cabinet nominee collapses, StimPack victory renews WH confidence to press on. Emanuel says they overvalued bipartisanship, while POTUS’s “large and expensive agenda that virtually assures 2009 will be marked by intense partisan battles about the size and role of government.”

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Female Suicide Bomber Kills 40 in Iraq

News
February 14, 2009 – 1:02 am

Three straight days of attacks on Shiite worshipers: woman blows herself up in tent filled with women and children resting during a pilgrimage. 40 dead, 80 wounded, many of the latter in the stampede of fleeing survivors. As US prepares to withdraw, terrorists still determined to fan the flames of sectarian violence.

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Kristol: Gregg’s Withdrawal All About Census, Emanuel Disrespect

Politics
February 14, 2009 – 12:56 am

Perhaps Judd Gregg evaluated his situation thusly: “I won’t be here long enough for the GOP to retake the chamber, but at Commerce, I can leave a significant mark on census policy for 2010 that will stand after I leave DC.” Once the CBC took that away, Gregg had no reason to stay.

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Calabrese: Outsourcing Key to GOP Comeback

Politics
February 14, 2009 – 12:52 am

GOP Consultant Calabrese recommends outsourcing political steps to forge a Republican comeback, following the model of Colorado Democrats who privatized traditional political-party functions. Potential problem: pissing off traditional GOP funders and activists to the point they give up and go home.

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- March 21, 2010 -

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