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Saturday, July 1, 2006
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New West: "A US Senate committee put the last nails in the coffins of two Bush administration plans to sell huge chunks of public lands. President Bush's 2007 budget called for large sales of U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management acreage to fund a rural schools and counties program and to help service the ballooning national debt. But the Senate committee penned legislation that left out the two provisions, following a similar move by the House, which all but seals the plans' fates.
"Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), an opponent of the plan, and author of an alternative proposal to fun the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act without land sales, was quoted in Lee Newspapers as saying, 'We can declare victory on the BLM land sale proposal. It's clear to me the administration realized that was a very bad idea and they've backed off. This is a major victory for public land access in Montana and across the West.'"
"2008 pres"
10:10:30 AM 
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Josh Marshall: "Bush Advisor Norquist: If we get 60 Republican senators, Social Security is toast."
"2008 pres"
10:08:39 AM
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Robert Cringely: "Bob Frankston is one of the smartest people I speak to. If you don't recognize his name, Bob is best known as the programmer who wrote VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet, realizing the design of his partner, Dan Bricklin. Bob and Dan changed the world forever with VisiCalc, the first killer app. After a career at Lotus and eventually Microsoft, Bob would now like to change the world for the better again, this time by fixing the mess that we call the Internet.
"The problem, to Bob's way of thinking, isn't the Internet per se, but the direction powerful political and business forces are attempting to take it. Part of this can be seen in last week's column on Net Neutrality, but Bob takes it further - a LOT further - to a point where it becomes logically clear that making almost any regulation specifically to hinder OR HELP the Internet can only make things worse. And by making it worse I mean inhibit in a severe way the growth of human knowledge, culture, and economic development. It's just a choice between freedom and totalitarianism, simple as that."
Lawrence Lessig: "Lots happening with Net Neutrality, most significantly that the Democrats seem to have decided that this is their issue. The extraordinary tie created in the Senate Commerce Committee (11-11) on party lines (plus the amazing Senator Snowe) seems to signal a decision by leaders of the party that this is a fight they want to lead. The slogan does have a nice right to it - 'Republicans: They sold the environment to Exxon, and sold the war to Halliburton. Now they want to sell the Internet to at&t.' (yea, the new logo is no-caps. a kinder, gentler ...) In my view, this is good news and bad. Good for the Dems that they got it. Bad that the issue is now within the grips of party politics. I guess it was just a matter of time, given how much money the cable and telcos have put on the table."
"2008 pres"
10:02:35 AM
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Gay Orbit: "I often tell people that I am not a Republican. And, given the current iteration of what's ruling Washington, that's a little bit true. But it's not the whole truth. The fact is, I am a Republican, and I nearly completely support what sensible Republicans believe the party should stand for - smaller government, personal liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and fiscal + personal responsibility. Unfortunately, that's not what you are getting with today's Republican Party.
"But just because the Republicans in Washington don't support any of this these days, that does not mean that this is what groups like Log Cabin Republicans support. In 2004, LCR received extensive criticism for not coming out in support of President Bush. I am quite comfortable with that. President Bush does not support smaller government. He does not support personal liberty and keeping the government out of you private affairs. President Bush and most of the Republicans in Washington definitely do not support fiscal restraint. So Log Cabin, although they adamantly support the GWOT, did not endorse him for president in 2004. That wasn't a tacit endorsement of John Kerry - far from it. It was nothing more than a non-endorsement of a president who is, for all intents and purposes, not a Republican. He just isn't - not in any historical sense."
Thanks to The Moderate Voice for the link.
"2008 pres"
9:53:11 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 11:41:44 AM.
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