Jan/090
Claiborne Pell died yesterday
You may not know who Claiborne Pell is right away, until you remember the Pell Grant. Passed in 1965, the Pell Grant has helped over 54 million Americans attend college. He was also part of the conference that drafted the founding charter of the UN, was the main sponsor behind the creation of the National Endowment for the Arts. Even though he was a multimillionaire, Pell ranked the Pell Grant program as his single greatest achievement.
Some things about Pell I found really interesting:
- Pell’s definition of his Senate job: Translate ideas into actions and help people.
- Quote: “I always try to let the other fellow have my way.”
- From Projo.com: “He was such a terrible driver that he drove for years in a white Mustang that was fitted with a roll-bar. That feature — plus the array of body dents and the pelican hood ornament he had borrowed from his family crest — always distinguished Pell’s car from the somber sedans at the foot of the Capitol steps.”
- Pell’s rules of campaigning: Don’t attack the other fellow. Keep a sense of humor. Do the unexpected.
In other news, a “biennial study by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, which evaluates how well higher education is serving the public, handed out F’s for affordability to 49 states, up from 43 two years ago. Only California received a passing grade in the category, a C, thanks to its relatively inexpensive community colleges.” “Only two states — New York and Tennessee — have made even minimal improvements since 2000, but they’re still considered to be failing. Everywhere else, families must fork over a greater percentage of their income to pay for college. In Illinois, the average cost of attending a public four-year college has jumped from 19 percent of a family’s income in 1999-2000 to 35 percent in 2007-2008, and in Pennsylvania, from 29 percent to 41 percent.”
Nov/080
Election Recap
Like millions of Americans, I attended an Election Party, was frustrated by the network’s unwillingness to actually say the words “Obama won”, while instead showing how there was no way that McCain could win…
But, they finally did call it, and then there was the awesome concession speech by John McCain. Of course, Obama’s speech was great as well. However, it was really interesting to see the reactions. The Daily Bugle, for instance, seemed to have no clue that Obama could win, in Washington, there seemed to be an air of doom and gloom. 
I’m really glad it’s all over though.
Oct/080
Christopher Buckley: Goodbye, NR
Chris Buckley has written that he turned in his resignation (which was “briskly” accepted) at the National Review. His recent article recounts his experience after writing an endorsement of Obama, and the journey toward his resignation.
So, I have been effectively fatwahed (is that how you spell it?) by the conservative movement, and the magazine that my father founded must now distance itself from me. But then, conservatives have always had a bit of trouble with the concept of diversity. The GOP likes to say it’s a big-tent. Looks more like a yurt to me.
While I regret this development, I am not in mourning, for I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for. Eight years of “conservative” government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance. As a sideshow, it brought us a truly obscene attempt at federal intervention in the Terry Schiavo case.
So, to paraphrase a real conservative, Ronald Reagan: I haven’t left the Republican Party. It left me.
(Links added for interest)
Does anyone know what “fatwahed” means?
Oct/080
Political Data Visualizations
Pointy Haired Dilbert has some pretty cool visualizations for the ‘08 Election featured on his blog. I really liked this one:
Oct/081
Government passes bailout, adds tax shelters, cuts, Fed lends money directly to companies. Stocks drop anyway.
While watching the debate, I happened to read this article. How much lower can it go?
Oct/080
The bailout has passed
Today President Bush signed into law a $700bn bailout plan(Actually closer to $850bn with plenty of Christmas treeing) to allow the Treasury department to buy up “toxic” assets from failing financial institutions. The DJIA immediately reacted by falling nearly 500 points by days end, to close –157 over open that day, and nearly 818 points lower than Monday’s open. Whether it was from the news that the jobless rate is rising (it’s ~6% now), or from the realization that now the government will have an even greater stake in the housing market, there’s no way of really knowing. However, the bill is passed, and, for once, it’s good to see the government act with decisive action, even if it is in conflict of interest or is completely lacking in important details, like how the money will be spent. What happens next will really determine if we have to repeat the bailout. In 5 years we can begin to recoup losses from the financial industry, but that could be thrown out of the window if the cost is too great, or if we have another bailout. Politicians are promising to enact tougher regulation on the market, which is part posturing, and part a realization that years of encouraging banks to lend out money to people with no hope of actually getting their money back is a bad idea.
