Delay = RINO
 

Yes, and I have posted links.

Some conservatives would just credit the White House for its remarkable political acumen and excellent spinning technique. Not sure why Spanky is fighting this one tooth and nail.

Delay = RINO
 

You conservatives with your moral relativism.

If one goes back to Infirm, and I think you were there, the Politics board was much more news topic driven then this place has become. It was also a ton more fun. Maybe the fun was driven by BT, and riffing off him.

What I recall was about once every three months Burger and Taxwonk would get into these long tax debates. Other than that no outside reading was required to keep up or contribute (to the extent most of us "contribute"). I could scroll through the tax debates (no offense to B or T, I just don't remember enough to kid myself I'd understand).

Here the fun is almost all gone. Perhaps that was shifter turning more serious.

And now instead of the threads every three months that need to be scrolled through, it is almost all of it. And I think that leads to the bases for arguments being "here's some blog" or "everyone but Ty understands this." No one has read the shit required to post intellignetly on these topics- in a sense Penske and I are the more serious posters for not trying to post seriously on topics where we know we haven't read what's required.

And posters here can pick how they want the board to be, I don't give a shit- Captain can go on on at length and all I would do is scroll. But when someone attacks me, then I go back. That is what I like best.

Delay = RINO
 

1) Does this approach, if true, have the intended effect? People hear the first prediction--
massive deficits, adn that has a cost. Does the "new" number really outweigh the old? People are pretty bored of this, and touting a "less massive" deficit doesn't exactly win points.

2) Every admin. has always used Rosy Scenario as the leading lady in its projections. How is this different from anything anyone has done in the last 40 years.

3) CBO is just as political, if not more so, than OMB. While averging the two figures has some value, CBO is generally even less useful.

I don't think I ever posted on Politics on infirm. I concede debates with wonk over tax here, but the length reflected their value, both intellectual and political.

somebody did, and it was someone from DC, but maybe it was someone who didn't make the jump. And remember i was not criticizing.

Delay = RINO
 

The fact that FDR lied about his intentions about the war was something you did not want to accept because it delegitimizes Bush's supposed lies that led us into the gulf war. Although you agreed that Bush probably did not lie you did think his using faulty evidence makes him culpable. Obviously FDR directly lying makes Bush's alleged activities seem less heinous.



Thick with irony. We know FDR lied about his intentions prior to WWII. He said he would do everything to keep us out of the war and in fact did not. We can compare what he said with what he did. i.e. repeated assertions that there would be no war in an FDR administration - while doing lend lease, military escorts, sharing intelligence, lend lease, the Atlantic Charter etc.

Bush inflating budgetary projections for political purposes is just supposition. There is no conclusive proof that he did. It is possible. But again projections on future deficits and surpluses are never accurate. Until there is some direct evidence and not supposition no conclusions can be drawn.

So it is absurd to ask me to admit that Bush intentionally did it when you have no direct evidence. Is there some direct evidence I am unaware of? It is possible, but who knows.

Delay = RINO
 

I agree with you here. FDR did the right thing. The jury is still out on Bush.

Delay = RINO
 

Uh-oh.

I'm certainly no economist, nor do I play one on TV, but even I expect this to rebound next month, as everyone realizes that we won't be paying for $5 gas after Katrina/Rita. But I wonder if it says something about the volatility of consumer confidence, and perhaps that everyone is nervously keeping an eye on the prices displayed at the local Union76. What will happen once the fall/winter home heating bills start coming in?

Delay = RINO
 

Normally the administration always predicts that the deficits won't be as bad as they are. For obvious reasons. The Reagan and Bush administration constantly underpredicted the deficits. In the Clinton administration they constantly underpredicted the reduction in the deficit and the surplus because the multiplier effect of the growing economy caught everyone off guard. I don't Clinton was intentionally underpredicting the good neaw. Tys assertion is that Bush is using reverse psychology. He intentionally overestimated the budget deficit (even though it gave fuel to his opponents when he came out with huge numbers) in the end it helped him because when the actual numbers came in they were below people's expectations so it deflated the shock. There is some circumstantial evidence that this happened. However, nothing conclusive. But in any event, Ty thinks the current evidence (which is really just supposition) is strong enough so I should accept that it really happened.

Egads
 

I didn't actually get on any of the highways, thanks to some preplanning a few months ago, but it was really, really bad getting out of Houston on Wednesday night/Thursday morning.

But apparently better than most places:
I heard on the radio on Monday morning that Bush was suggesting that the Pentagon take over these sorts of things. The thought horrifies me. It seems that the Administration either wants total military control or none at all on the Federal level and working with local government and businesses isn't as much of an option.

ETA: I kinda agree with this guy: Seems that Wal-Mart's plan worked beautifully during Katrina, when it wasn't interfered with by FEMA. There are a lot of experts on logistics out there that don't specialize in warfare. It seems to me that we should look to them first and let the Pentagon worry about defending the country from enemies.

Egads
 

What was Wal-Mart's plan?

ETA http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05255/570139.stm actually more informative vis-a-vis the planning part of it than the WaPo/Houston Chron article.

Egads
 

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/image...51003/frtn.jpg

To Kick Ass and Take Names.

You want 8 billion bottles of water and 2 billion Slim Jims into an area in 24 hours, you don't call FEMA. You call Home Depot and Walmart.

Egads
 

I've been wondering about this. I could imagine you could contract to a consulting firm for an evacuation plan, and I even imagine it happens, but when the shit hits the fan, in the specific case of running an evacuation, how is business going to outperform the government? Are you going to pay more attention to a WalMart greeter waving a flashlight than a state trooper?

Egads
 

Wal-Mart, at the beginning of hurricane season, started stockpiling water all over the Gulf Coast in containers at their distribution centers. All they needed was the truck to back up to the containers and they were ready to deliver water to hurricane affected areas. Their communications system never went down, so they could figure out where water was needed most, and they could direct the trucks to the right places. They were on the road by the Thursday after Katrina, and the only problems that they had were when FEMA wouldn't let them through at some points. Additionally, their distribution network is sophisticated enough that they were able to get several thousand cots from Canada in a matter of days.