Informed Speculation

Meant to blog on this yesterday, when the whole world was, but got busy…in case you missed it, Howard Fineman dropped quite a bombshell: A Democratic senator I can’t name, who reluctantly voted for the health-care bill out of loyalty to his party and his admiration for Barack Obama, privately complained to me that the [...]

As long as there has been a Congressional Budget Office, there has been a lot of crying from one side or the other of the partisan divide about their latest estimates.  So when a conservative such as myself says I don’t believe this health care boondoggle will reduce the deficit, the immediate accusation is one of [...]

Here’s a little Sunday fun – in October, 2006, the Rolling Stones played, incredibly, Zilker Park in Austin in front of about 45,000 people.  It boggled the mind to ponder it, and the show was, even more incredibly, better than anyone thought it could be.  It was one of those glorious evenings that, for those [...]

The liberal blogosphere and even commenters who lean left here were trumpeting a new poll released earlier this week that showed the public in favor of the health care reforms passed Sunday after months and months of polling showing the public as consistently opposed.  It is not surprising that the health care reforms would get [...]

I based my opposition to health care reform on a simple premise I repeated over and over – we can’t afford it.  I never believed the bill would reduce the deficit and I still don’t.  And I’m not alone – here’s Jay Cost: Between now and the next presidential election, ObamaCare is going to pay [...]

Want to help save one of Austin’s most cherished music rooms and look damn cool while doing it?  Donate to the Save the Cactus Cafe cause by buying one of their new t-shirts.  I did, and I can guarantee you, you cannot wear this shirt without getting into a cool conversation with a stranger.  It’s [...]

Those who are feeling abandoned by the fates after the heinous vote on Sunday can take solace in one bit of cheerful news – the most notorious national organization to somehow find itself in the midst of voter fraud allegations over and over again is closing its doors, permanently, we can only hope: The community organizing [...]

…and you can actually drive in dowtown Austin again for the first time in five days.  Seriously, it’s great to have what has now become, I think I can say without contradiction, the premier music festival in all of the world in town.  To give you some idea of the global scope of the festival [...]

Well, let’s not kid ourselves.  Health care reform is passing the House today, and it’s very unlikely it can be procedurally derailed in the Senate.  The game is, for all intents and purposes, over.  The turning point was the CBO report that showed increased deficit reduction (though a higher cost) than the Senate bill.  This [...]

Even loyal Democrats must surely be getting quesy about the prospect of passing major legislation that will have enormous consequences not only for health care, but for the deficit and the U.S. economy forevermore, through increasingly desperate measures that try to cover for the fact that the public is opposed and the votes just aren’t [...]

Who will historians blame when they look back on the series of financial catastrophes that led to the inevitable default of America on its obligations and the resulting global depression of the mid-21st century?  The New Dealers who started the entitlement wave?  The Great Society of Lyndon Johnson that extended it (during the middle of [...]

…and the reason?  Because Congress is full of public “servants” all too ready to prostitute their votes for a little bacon.  We’ve already seen what kind of cowardly horse-trading went down to get the votes of Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, and other “principled” leaders in the Senate – we can expect more of the same [...]