URLs du Jour

2009-10-30

  • Jonah Goldberg devotes a column to the remarkable sycophancy of Rocco Landesman, chairman of the National Endowment for da Arts. My favorite sentence:
    In short, Landesman doesn't know what he's talking about. But he does know what he's doing.
    Jonah has a good brief history of the arts community's recent willingness to politicize itself.

  • Michael Goldfarb notes foreign policy progress:

    The Obama administration's diplomatic efforts on North Korea have stalled, the peace process is going nowhere fast, and now the negotiations with Iran have collapsed entirely.

    But don't worry. We can still push around small Latin American countries.

  • Given the House version of Obamacare rolled out yesterday, it's a good day to remember the "firm pledge" made, nearly literally, in Pun Salad's own backyard:
    "I can make a firm pledge," [candidate Obama] said in Dover, N.H., on Sept. 12. "Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."

    He repeatedly vowed "you will not see any of your taxes increase one single dime."

    That's an AP story from earlier this year noting the quick breakage of that campaign promise. Today, as Jacob Sullum notes, that Obama's current attitude toward his pledge seems to be "Already Broken, Might As Well Stomp on It":
    Americans for Tax Reform lists the tax hikes in the House health care bill that would violate President Obama's campaign pledge to avoid "any form" of higher taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year. They include an income surtax of 2.5 percent for people who refuse to buy health insurance, a payroll tax on businesses that fail to buy insurance for their employees, and several restrictions on health savings accounts.
    Could all you people who voted for Obama because you thought he was trustworthy please raise your hands.

    Ah, good.

    Now use them to slap yourselves silly.