First post in weeks, but The NY Times had an excellent article which happens to display Obama's support of corn ethanol subsides and overall lack of a coherent energy policy.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/us/politics/23ethanol.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087&em&en=bf288b4414f2c278&ex=1214366400

“The military is the greatest waster of money and manpower we have. They must be made to conduct their affairs in a businesslike manner.”
- Barry Goldwater

I love Dunkin Donuts

American Tories

David Brooks wrote a semi-interesting column yesterday summing up the Tories recent revival in UK's municipal elections representing a possible change for the GOP.

"The flow of ideas has changed direction. It used to be that American conservatives shaped British political thinking. Now the influence is going the other way.
The British conservative renovation begins with this insight: The central political debate of the 20th century was over the role of government. The right stood for individual freedom while the left stood for extending the role of the state. But the central debate of the 21st century is over quality of life. In this new debate, it is necessary but insufficient to talk about individual freedom. Political leaders have to also talk about, as one Tory politician put it, “the whole way we live our lives.”

Cameron describes a new global movement, with rising center-right parties in Sweden, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, California and New York (he admires Schwarzenegger and Bloomberg). American conservatives won’t simply import this model. But there’s a lot to learn from it. The only question is whether Republicans will learn those lessons sooner, or whether they will learn them later, after a decade or so in the wilderness. "

If there is a McCain victory this November (or defeat) it seems likely that the American conservatives might coincidently take this route. Its not hard to start imaging American conservatism to emmulate the book pictured below (for better or worse) in the near future.

Intersting point by Andrew Sullivan

Andrew Sullivan, who once was the editor-in-chief of the New Republic, wrote this op-ed of Clinton's overall campaign strategy recently.


"..the Clintons have turned Pennsylvania into a microcosm of what they think
the general election will be in November. And the Clintons are running as
the Rove Republicans. If they fail to destroy Barack Obama as effectively as
Karl Rove – Bush’s master of the dark arts – destroyed Al Gore and John Kerry in 2000
and 2004, with tactics just as brutal but even more personal, then they will
have driven American politics to a critical point. They will have shown that the
paradigm that has reigned in US politics for at least two decades has been shattered. "

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/andrew_sullivan/article3778978.ece

Life imitates art

On Volokh Conspiracy this post read easrly this morning

"Al Qaeda Objects to 9/11 Conspiracy Theorists: So do you think it might give
pause to 9/11 conspiracy theorists that Al Qaeda has now criticized Iran for spreading 9/11 conspiracy theories in an alleged effort to deny Al Qaeda the credit it believes it is due for the 9/11 attacks? Hmm, no, I guess not"

Which seems to bear an uncanny rememblance to this recent Onion clip; http://www.theonion.com/content/video/9_11_conspiracy_theories

old pdf from 2003 of realists against the Iraq war http://mearsheimer.uchicago.edu/pdfs/P0012.pdf