Friday, April 15, 2011

Dogs, Not Barking

1. "The Kennedys." I've seen a few tweets about it, I suppose, but it sure doesn't seem to have amounted to much, after all, after all the earlier hoopla.

2. Some dogs are things that didn't happen; others happened, but are unreported. This one is the latter: U.S. deaths in Iraq seem to be up a bit this year. After only 19 military fatalities in the last six months of 2010, there have already been 17 so far in 2011. It's something to keep in mind in light of the big question in Iraq, which is whether U.S. troops will wind up staying longer than currently planned.

3. Peter Diamond. Still not confirmed. Still no evidence that the White House cares.

4. Oh, you know it: Fairness Doctrine.

5. Am I missing a Democratic or liberal parallel to the conservative belief that a Fairness Doctrine revival (and gun control, and perhaps several other things that Democrats apparently have no interest in) is just around the corner? I really can't think of one, but if you can, let me know.

11 comments:

  1. My first guess would be outlawing of birth control. But...

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  2. I think it would be the Court striking down Roe.

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  3. The Wall Street Journal pointed out the bigger issue of finance openings, including Peter Diamond, a week ago.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704013604576249080023935562.html#project%3DVacanciesB110408%26articleTabs%3Dinteractive

    Maybe someday they'll do a nice graphic on the judges too?

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  4. phat, outlawing birth control's a bit extreme; but outlawing abortion isn't. Yet I don't think it will happen. It's too good a tool for bringing the religious right out to the voting booths to eliminate; Karl Rove's magic charm; like faery-coin, visible just out of reach.

    Right now, I'm looking at the Paul Ryan budget plan and seeing Medicare as another. But the difference here is that Democrats don't seem least interested in reviving the Fairness Doctrine or gun control; they seem to be Republican nightmares. I think eliminating choice and Medicare are also republican nightmares. These people seem to have trouble sleeping at night.

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  5. I always figured that most lefty anxiety is of the circular firing squad variety--every Democratic politician being a corporate slave and such.

    Asides from the ones listed above, I can imagine stripping collective bargaining rights becoming something of a parallel in the short and medium-term, in the sense that no GOP politicians in positions of governance will seriously attempt it in order to avoid Wisconsin-type showdowns, but Democrats bringing up its specter when possible.

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  6. I think the replies here are too serious. this is a beautiful post.

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  7. I think the closest parallel to a Fairness Doctrine conspiracy theory would be Republicans secretly trying to abolish Medicare and slashing all non-defense government spending in order to finance tax cuts for the weal---oh, wait.

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  8. What I have not seen is a liberal response to the Ryan budget; and by this I mean a platform released by prominent progressives that embodies a left-leaning pipe dream, something comprehensive in the way Ryan's was (like including Medicare-for-all, raising taxes to pre-Reagan levels, gutting defense spending, fully funding HSR, doing away with student loans and providing higher education free at the point of service). Sure, the Progressive Caucus put out their proposal but that was mostly technocratic policy changes supported by a good majority of the Democrats, while Ryan's truly is ideological. Imagine the indignation on the right and scoffing by the media/very serious persons if there were a Republican president and progressives had not only offered a budget like the one above and brought it up on the floor, but have it pass with nearly all Democrats voting for it.

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  9. I haven't heard anyone talk about the fairness doctrine for a while. Did I miss something?

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  10. I haven't heard anyone talk about the fairness doctrine for a while. Did I miss something?

    It shares a feature with all non-barking-dog issues, or 'issues'.

    When you hear about it, it's imminent.
    When you don't hear about it, it's still imminent, but the Democrats are being stealthy about it.

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  11. DXM,

    No, I get it. I was just wondering who the Republican offender was this week.

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