2003

Deficits, Deficits

ArchPundit July 15, 2003 No Comments

455 Billion. But they will decline. Now, Max Sawicky will tell you deficits don’t matter much, but the reality is that the conditions he always places on good deficit spending assumes some sort of investment being made–but we aren’t making investments of any consequence and we are spending money we need to prepare for the Boomer retirement.

I’m not even going to bitch about Bush’s spending because, well, I’m tired of it. If you want to spend, you have to tax. He wants it both ways and of all possible solutions, that is the worst long term solution.

Dutch Sheets and Pat Robertson: Peas in a Pod

ArchPundit July 15, 2003 No Comments

Not to be outdone by porn-star named evangelist Dutch Sheets, Pat Robertson has started his own offensive prayer….errr…he says prayer offensive.

Personally, I’m praying for the good people of Liberia

Not-To-Bright

ArchPundit July 14, 2003 No Comments

Kieran Healy appropriately addresses what I thought was a satirical op-ed about brights.

So apparently the Op-Ed wasn’t satire.

I’m all for better ballot access and stuff

ArchPundit July 14, 2003 No Comments

And I think we should make it easier for the Greens and Libertarians to get on the ballot and take part in forums, but can we please relegate Vic Roberts to the looney bin?

Retired coal miner Vic Roberts of Downstate Taylorville, who carried his mining helmet to the stage, repeatedly questioned the operations of the Federal Reserve Board and presented himself as a Democrat who would fight for the "everyday way of life."

Vic is pretty much LaRouche with a coal miner’s hat.

Game Theoretic Nightmare=Great Television

ArchPundit July 14, 2003 No Comments

The reason economists are often so smug about their ability to analyze human behavior is because they slice off the easy portion of it where one can generally safely assume the behavior is motivated by economic self-interest.

Of course, the world is much more complex once one has to examine where preferences change and that is the beauty of the

The Wire

And then there’s "The Wire" (Sundays at 9:30 p.m. on HBO, with repeats throughout the week), a richly textured universe unto itself, populated by detectives, drug dealers, longshoremen, politicians and lawyers who have motives so diverse, surprising and complicated, each scene seems to reveal a new layer of depth and complexity. Watching this series is like navigating the streets of a genius-level SimCity — it takes a while to grasp just how far from the TV-land basics creator David Simon is willing to wander.

Since Homicide went off the air, I’ve been aching for another show that qualifies as Best Damn Show on Television and we have a winner in another show set in Baltimore and not surprisingly, involves David Simon on the creative team.

Let’s hope this doesn’t spawn another frightful rant by creationist sounding Megan McCardle over what is truly social science.

Gerry Chico is endorsed by The Officer

ArchPundit July 14, 2003 No Comments

I’m unclear on why Chico would seek out the endorsement of Carl Officer, Mayor of East St. Louis, but Chico got it. Carl is strange to say the least and he doesn’t control the Central Committee so such an endorsement doesn’t do a whole lot. Then again, Chico is raising money, but having a hard time getting traction.

Miquelon Scandal

ArchPundit July 14, 2003 No Comments

Well, the Miriam Miquelon resignation got real interesting real quick.

Miquelon survived the attempts by many in St. Clair County to deny her appointment as US Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois. She was appointed by Peter Fitzgerald as a tough prosecutor not afraid to go after political corruption and was the lead prosecutor against Amiel Cueto. Those from around St. Clair tried to block her nomination because they were concerned that she would take a hard look at corruption in the County and maybe bag a few big fish.

Now allegations are flying that Miquelon targeted people who opposed her nomination and may well have had an affair with an employee and then intimidated people from reporting it.

I don’t know what the hell to make of it all, but given the nature of the corruption and grudges in this case, truth will probably be the first casualty.

Simmons out–my that was quick

ArchPundit July 14, 2003 No Comments

John Simmons, the downstate trial lawyer, left the US Senate race last week after having pledged $40 million to win the race. Instead, he is endorsing Dan Hynes.

Can Costello be far behind. Costello spoke very warmly of Simmons recently–giving one the impression that he used his leverage to move Simmons to the Hynes camp.

Why does one drop his promise to spend $40 million so quickly?

A) He was a gadfly hit with a reality sandwich
B) He was a pawn to scare Hull out of the race
C) He was a pawn of Costello’s to get some leverage
D) He was using his candidacy to get some leverage for another run

I don’t know which is more likely, but none of the options are particularly attractive. And again, an establishment candidate is using Jerry Costello to win despite his ties to organized crime.

6 Years in Federal Prison and He Still has a Law License

ArchPundit July 14, 2003 No Comments

Amiel Cueto resurfaces in the news as Miquelon’s scandal breaks. One might think this isn’t a coincidence.

Cueto’s lawyer is arguing that even if he did break the law, it doesn’t mean he should be disbarred.

"Even (if) Cueto’s acts did constitute obstruction of justice and conspiracy …, those acts were not in violation of any of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct"

Cueto is a long time associate of Metro East Congressman Jerry Costello and was sent to prison for obstructing an investigation into him regarding his attempts to obtain a casino license with unindicted coconspirator Costello.

Why so Much about Hull?

ArchPundit July 14, 2003 No Comments

Well, he is actually running and running on-line. Some of the coverage of on-line efforts miss the importance of on the ground efforts to reach key constituencies that don’t use the internet regularly, but on-line activism helps reach people who often aren’t typical advocacy group members, but are politically active.

Hull is announcing the start of meet-ups which is a good idea and helps connect potential on the ground workers when you can’t rely upon the regular party workers. Interestingly, The Common Space is a venue for the Metro East region–still working out the kinks given it wouldn’t generally be convenient for Metro Easters, but I highly recommend it to others. Hull visited Belleville already and I missed it do to weather, but the tour seems to be a positive way to build name recognition while also doing so on the internet and on television.

And did he go to Lucca in Bloomington? Hell yes–go down to the pic next to Mike Kelleher (not a Senate candidate), former Congressional and Lieutenant Governor Candidate and next to that is a pic of the Lucca Grill.

The key to a Hull campaign is to build energy as an insurgent. A key way to do that is to appeal to people outside the general party framework and while such campaigns using the internet are relatively new, this is a good start for a statewide campaign. The other web sites are largely useless, though Obama has some grassroots efforts to start meetups for him.