Time for Institutional Reform? Well, Only When Democrats Are Losing

Leave it to the bright lights of the political science profession to call for major structural reforms on the heels of the debt deal. It reminds me of all the useless handwringing over the filibuster once Obama-the-Socialist was elected. Progressives lost. And the losers are screaming foul! See Jacob Hacker and Oona Hathaway, at New York Times, "Our Unbalanced Democracy" (via Memeorandum):

OUR nation isn’t facing just a debt crisis; it’s facing a democracy crisis. For weeks, the federal government has been hurtling toward two unsavory options: a crippling default brought on by Congressional gridlock, or — as key Democrats have advocated — a unilateral increase in the debt ceiling by an unchecked president. Even if the last-minute deal announced on Sunday night holds together, it’s become clear that the balance at the heart of the Constitution is under threat.

The debate has threatened to play out as a destructive but all too familiar two-step, revealing how dysfunctional the relationship between Congress and the president has become.

The two-step begins with a Congress that is hamstrung and incapable of effective action. The president then decides he has little alternative but to strike out on his own, regardless of what the Constitution says.

Congress, unable or unwilling to defend its role, resorts instead to carping at “his” program, “his” war or “his” economy — while denying any responsibility for the mess it helped create. The president, on the defensive, digs in further.

This is, to say it plainly, pure bull. The system's working just the way it's supposed to. The electorate voted for a GOP House majority in 2010. And the Republicans stuck to their guns, to the shock of the old establishment, both Democrats and Republicans alike, who have historically, in previous rounds of debt "negotiations," faked spending restraint while hiking taxes. We have a presidential system and the separation of power. Each office is elected individually, with elections staggered every two years between the House (two-year terms, the entire membership up for reelection every two years), the Senate (six year terms of office for political insulation, with one-third of senators elected every two years), and the president (four year terms of office, term limited since 1951 to prevent cults of personality). Thank the Framers of the Constitution. They built a system that effectively prevents tyranny of the majority. If the voters are unhappy, they get to pick the government they want in 2012. That's how it works. No one's taking hostages. The system's not dysfunctional. If you don't like the filibuster, elect 60 senators from your own party to the majority in the Senate. That solves the problem. If you don't like Republican backbone in the House, take back the chamber in 2010. That's how it works. Amazing how progressives whine about how the sky is falling when folks say we ought to live within our means. It's all going to work out, and in the end the average voter will have demonstrated more influence than the upper-crust academics sneering from their ivory towers.

Image Credit: The People's Cube.

30 Years of MTV

At Independent UK, "It's 30 years since MTV launched and in its three decades, it’s changed the way we think about – as well as watch – music."

I just miss JJ Jackson and Martha Quinn. See, "MTV at 30: Original Veejays, Where Are They Now?"

Historic Chelsea Hotel Closes to Guests

At New York Times, "A Last Night Among the Spirits at the Chelsea Hotel":

Part of the allure of the Chelsea, beyond the creepy yet tantalizing feeling that the place is thick with spirits, is that from the inside looking out, New York can still feel gritty. Its cavelike hallways are lined with paintings, striking collages and old electrical wiring caked with innumerable coats of paint. A palpable heaviness lingers, especially in the first-floor room where Nancy Spungen was staying with her boyfriend, Sid Vicious, when she was stabbed to death in 1978. Artists, photographers, composers and producers still live there, making the place part art colony, part living museum.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

40th Anniversary of Concert for Bangladesh

Well, this gives me the chance to play George Harrison (via Selena Gomez on Twitter).

And check the George Harrison page here.

Forget the Debt Deal, Dude Gets Britney Spears Lap Dance in D.C.!

WaPo has the review of Britney Spears' concert at Verizon Center on Sunday. But see Celebuzz, "Britney Spears Gives Lap Dance to Lucky Audience Member (PHOTOS)."

Now that is some hostage taking I can get behind, or, well, under!!

Debt Deal Kicks Democrats to the Curb

See George Condon, at National Journal, "Obama Hurt By Debt Debate." Condon suggests that extending the debt ceiling until 2013 is actually a victory for Obama. But a quick skim around the progressive blogosphere indicates how badly the left got beaten up on this deal. Kos has this, for example, with no upside: "Getting rid of Bush tax cuts ... won't happen." (At Memeorandum.)

Republicans are winning.

But see Bruce Kesler, who argues it's more of the same: "Debt Deal: New Demoralization and New Sobriety." And similar points on offer from Josh Barro, "Debt Ceiling Deal—Less Than Meets the Eye."

Oshkosh M-ATV MRAP at X-Games 17 (Los Angeles)

I've written about the MRAP previously, but it was quite an experience to see one of these mofos up close. The word is BIG!!

(The Navy set up a big recruitment station at the X-Games.)

The MRAP is a high-mobility mine-resistant ambush-protected combat vehicle. The units were developed as a key anti-insurgency vehicles, designed to protect soldiers from IEDs (improvised explosive devices). By 2005, in Iraq, roughly half of all combat casualties were due to IED attacks. Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who retired in June, said the deployment of MRAPs in Iraq and Afghanistan has saved "thousands of lives." The Oshkosh M-ATV page is here.

Click to enlarge the image below:

The Myth of the Extraordinary Teacher

From Ellie Herman, at Los Angeles Times:

The kid in the back wants me to define "logic." The girl next to him looks bewildered. The boy in front of me dutifully takes notes even though he has severe auditory processing issues and doesn't understand a word I'm saying. Eight kids forgot their essays, but one has a good excuse because she had another epileptic seizure last night. The shy, quiet girl next to me hasn't done homework for weeks, ever since she was jumped by a knife-wielding gangbanger as she walked to school. The boy next to her is asleep with his head on the desk because he works nights at a factory to support his family. Across the room, a girl weeps quietly for reasons I'll never know. I'm trying to explain to a student what I meant when I wrote "clarify your thinking" on his essay, but he's still confused.

It's 8:15 a.m. and already I'm behind my scheduled lesson. A kid with dyslexia, ADD and anger-management problems walks in late, throws his books on the desk and swears at me when I tell him to take off his hood.

The class, one of five I teach each day, has 31 students, including two with learning disabilities, one who just moved here from Mexico, one with serious behavior problems, 10 who flunked this class last year and are repeating, seven who test below grade level, three who show up halfway through class every day, one who almost never comes. I need to reach all 31 of them, including the brainiac who's so bored she's reading "Lolita" under her desk.

I just can't do it.

Keep reading to get to the myth of extraordinary teachers, although I'll add this part:

I understand that we need to get rid of bad teachers, who will be just as bad in small classes, but we can't demand that teachers be excellent in conditions that preclude excellence.

Actually, I'm not even sold on the idea of "really bad" teachers. Some aren't that great and probably shouldn't be teaching. I can think of a couple of professors at my college who have absolutely no social skills, and hence have a hard time reaching a comfortable or appropriate level of interaction with their students. But I also often hear reports about how such-and-such teacher changed some student's life. It's that level of interaction that gives meaning. The students I'm able to help most are generally those who take the time to break from the routine of just showing up. I'll be there to help students, inside the class and out. I'm especially thankful when students make an effort to attend office hours and share with me their own challenges or difficulties. That's when I can assess what needs to be done, and I can design some kind of extra program of help or attention, from either myself or other resources on campus. But all those stories Ms. Herman shares about her students, well, I have some as well. It's the inside of education that's not always known or understood. A lot of this is economic disadvantage, but a lot is just the way things are, that not every student who comes to us turns out as a Ph.D. candidate to Harvard. You make a difference where you can, helping students to learn and move forward. And hopefully you get a little recognition in return, even if it's just a well-needed thank you for your efforts.

A Tea Party Triumph

This is why the New York Times editors are so pissed off.

At Wall Street Journal:

If a good political compromise is one that has something for everyone to hate, then last night's bipartisan debt-ceiling deal is a triumph. The bargain is nonetheless better than what seemed achievable in recent days, especially given the revolt of some GOP conservatives that gave the White House and Democrats more political leverage.

***

The big picture is that the deal is a victory for the cause of smaller government, arguably the biggest since welfare reform in 1996. Most bipartisan budget deals trade tax increases that are immediate for spending cuts that turn out to be fictional. This one includes no immediate tax increases, despite President Obama's demand as recently as last Monday. The immediate spending cuts are real, if smaller than we'd prefer, and the longer-term cuts could be real if Republicans hold Congress and continue to enforce the deal's spending caps.

I've been really thinking about that this last few days. So much of current political dealmaking in the end depends on who wins in November 2012 and beyond. Republicans positioned themselves well for the upcoming campaign, and with 1.3 percent GDP growth and unemployment sticky at 9.2 percent, there's lots of reason for the Times to be even more pissed. It's another case of projection, of course. Progressives are mad. So they lash out, despite their own home-grown failures. Keep an eye out this week for more heated rhetoric from the left. Republicans might stock up on some choice quotes to run later in political ads. Democrats are really sore at losing this round, all the more so since their strategy of do-nothing obstructionism turned out to be a disaster. And we've got a presidential election as on the ballot as well. Boy, things are shaping up very well for the reviled teabaggers conservatives.

Progressives Hell-Bent on Bullying Millions Into Silence

From Melanie Phillips, at London's Daily Mail, "Hatred, smears and the liberals hell-bent on bullying millions of us into silence":

The baleful effects of the recent attacks in Norway, where Anders Breivik bombed Oslo’s government district and then gunned down teenagers at a Labour party camp, murdering at least 77 people, have not been limited to that horrific carnage.

For the atrocity has produced a reaction among people on the political Left in Britain, Europe and the U.S. that is in itself shocking and terrifying.

Former Norwegian prime minister and current chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize committee Thorbjorn Jagland has said that, in response to the violent attacks, David Cameron and other European leaders should use a more ‘cautious’ approach when talking about multiculturalism.

Cameron has said multiculturalism (the doctrine that gives the values of minorities equal status to those of the majority) has failed, and has also talked about ‘Islamist extremism’ as a cause of terrorism.

Jagland, however, said leaders would be ‘playing with fire’ if they continued to use rhetoric that could be exploited by extremists such as Breivik.

This is because Breivik’s so-called manifesto shows that he is violently against mass immigration, multiculturalism and Islamisation — and that he wants the forced repatriation of Muslims from Europe and the murder of all who have promoted multiculturalism.

But to connect such abhorrent ravings with Cameron’s comments is simply grotesque.
First and foremost, this is treating Breivik as if his words deserve to be taken seriously and at face value.

As of now, however, we don’t know whether Breivik is psychotic, a psychopath or under the influence of all the drugs he claims to have taken.

We also don’t know what part, if any, his political views actually played in this atrocity.

After all, since his target was his country’s Labour party one might just as well surmise that he was motivated by hatred of his father, who was a Labour party supporter and who was divorced from Breivik’s mother when the killer was a baby.

In any event, someone who travels to a teenagers’ summer camp and invites them all to gather round so that he can kill them all cannot be considered rational.

Yet the former Norwegian premier is treating Breivik as if he is a political terrorist whose words have the authority of a sane and coherent creed.

Still more at the link.

'Just Another Clown'

Sung to the tune of "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone" (via Instapundit):

More punk fiscal conservatism at The Other McCain, "The radical punk-rock anthem of our age," and "Yeah, It’s Time For The Circle Jerks."

Raunchy Women Highlight Summer Movies

I'm going to have catch some of these on cable, as we're behind on our summer movie-going, but this story made the front-page at yesteday's Los Angeles Times, so here you go: "In summer comedies, women belch just as well as men."

Sports Illustrated Hotties Pick Their Favorite Leading Men

The bikini babes prove they're hopelessy geeky:

And in related Rule 5 news, at American Perspective, "Hot Sci Fi ladies: Leeloo, Storm, Mystique, Trinity," and Maggie's Notebook, "Rule 5 Saturday Night: Annie Ilonzeh."

BONUS: From Bob Belvedere, "Rule 5 News: 29 July 2011 A.D."

New York Times Slurs Republicans as 'Hostage-Taking Extremists'

It's no mystery where the Times' editorial board gets such language. The progressive blogosphere has long been awash in beyond-the-pale attacks on principled conservatives. And the tone has taken a desperate turn of late. Government spending is out of control and leftist elites called for more of the same as an ostensible solution. The White House never offered an original plan and Senate Democrats played obstruction until the last moment. As I noted previously, elections have consequences. The GOP deserves credit for sticking to the political currents that brought them majority power last year in the House of Representatives. There's still a long way to go on the road to reform, and progressives are suffocating at the prospects of more good government rationalization. And reading this is like hearing the tormented screams of the demon being impaled. It's excruciating when your expansionist agenda is decisively crushed. But with luck it's just a start:

There is little to like about the tentative agreement between Congressional leaders and the White House except that it happened at all. The deal would avert a catastrophic government default, immediately and probably through the end of 2012. The rest of it is a nearly complete capitulation to the hostage-taking demands of Republican extremists. It will hurt programs for the middle class and poor, and hinder an economic recovery.

It is not yet set in stone, and there may still be time to make it better. But in the end, most Democrats will have no choice but to swallow their fury, accept the deal and, we hope, fight harder the next time.

VIDEO: President Obama Announces Debt Agreement

Here's the clip, as promised:

And at Wall Street Journal, "Leaders Agree on Debt Deal":

After weeks of partisan wrangling, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders reached a deal Sunday night to raise the government's debt ceiling while cutting spending by about $2.4 trillion, avoiding a government default but setting the stage for months more of stormy debates over how Washington taxes and spends.

The Senate and House are expected to vote on the deal Monday, so the agreement still needs the support of many House Republicans, who have proven a restless, independent group in recent days. But if it passes the House and Senate, it culminates an extraordinary display of political and economic brinksmanship, coming just days before the government could have been unable to fully pay its bills.

The deal would raise the debt ceiling by $2.4 trillion in two stages, and provide initially for $917 billion in spending cuts over 10 years. A special committee of lawmakers would be charged with finding another $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction, which could come through a tax overhaul and changes to safety-net programs.

If the committee doesn't find at least $1.2 trillion in savings, or Congress doesn't adopt its proposals, a pre-set array of spending cuts would kick in, including cuts in military spending and Medicare payments to health-care providers.

Also, "White House Issues Fact Sheet on Debt Deal."

Shaun White Interview After Winning Vert Competition at X-Games 17

I snapped this shot of Shaun White's interview from the big screens inside the Nokia Center:

And here's the clip from the X-Games channel:

And a roundup of yesterday's results, at LAT, "Shaun White saves his best for last in Skateboard Vert."

Rally Cars at X Games 17

We parked south of Staples Center yesterday at the X-Games. If you check the venue layout at the link, there's a pedestrian walkway from Pico Boulevard back up toward Flower Street. Walking up to the entrance, we watched the rally cars coming out of the turn running along Pico (at about 18 seconds at the clip below). My youngest boy had to cover his ears. He wasn't used to anything like that. I was mostly surprised. I didn't even realize they'd added rally car racing to the program this year. Pretty cool, in any event. Here's this from this morning's LAT, "X Games takes it to the streets":

Imagine eight 550-horsepower noisy breadboxes that in one instant can be still but two seconds later can reach 60 miles an hour.

Imagine them side-by-side, blitzing down Figueroa Street outside L.A. Live, topping 100 mph while the Los Angeles Police Department sits idly by, radar guns holstered.

That's the image that danced in X Games officials' heads when they introduced rally car racing to the action sports event in 2006. And it's finally coming true this year.

The Rally Car Racing event Saturday marked the first such race on downtown Los Angeles streets — three streets, to be exact.

But Saturday was an undercard for Sunday, when the RallyCross event, similar to the Eurocentric style of rally car racing, lights up the 3,100-foot, six-turn course.

"It will be much more difficult," said two-time world rally champion Marcus Gronholm. "More cars lined up…. If you're are into traffic …oy, oy, oy,"

Leaders Reach Debt Deal

Here's the banner headline at National Journal, "SENATE LEADERS SAY DEAL HAS BEEN REACHED." And then clicking through, "Obama to Speak: Reid Says Deal Reached."

And checking over at C-SPAN, "President Announces Deal With Congressional Leaders on Debt Ceiling":

President Obama announced this evening that Congressional leaders from both parties have reached an agreement on a plan to raise the debt ceiling.

Saying it wasn't the deal he "would have preferred," the President nonetheless threw his support behind the plan, which will now presumably come up for a vote in the House and Senate this week.

By a count of 50 - 49, the Senate voted this afternoon to not proceed with debate on Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) debt ceiling proposal. The vote required 60 votes to clear the filibuster hurdle. Following the vote, the Senate went into recess while negotiations continued off the floor.

At the opening of this afternoon's session, Sen. Reid said he was "cautiously optimistic" that a debt ceiling deal could be reached soon. Later in the day House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said she would have to present any deal to the Democratic rank and file members of the House before she'd support it.

Yeah, Dems aren't too happy, as Roll Call reports:

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said early reports of the new deal appeared to be “a sugar-coated Satan sandwich.” The Missouri Democrat said the CBC hadn’t yet made a formal declaration that the group would oppose it, “but this is a shady bill.”

“This deal trades people’s livelihoods for the votes of a few unappeasable right-wing radicals, and I will not support it,” ripped Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, before House Democrats had even been briefed. “The lesson today is that Republicans can hold their breath long enough to get what they want.”

Actually, elections have consequences. The real integrity this last few weeks has been on the House side, with the GOP majority.

See also at New York Times, "Leaders Reach Deal to Raise Debt Ceiling." (At Memeorandum.)

I'll update with video in a bit.

Obama Caused Fear and Panic on the Economy

I watched "Meet the Press" this morning for a bit, before going back to sleep. Jim Cramer's always interesting, although former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, featured on the round-table panel, is the last person you want speaking on job creation:

Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action

I've forgotten now, but I'm sure I got a few NEA e-mails on this. Here's the website.

These people are angry and stupid, and dangerous combination. Video c/o Glenn Reynolds: