The latest blogroll addition is UrbanGrounds written by Robbie Cooper, “a conservative, a biker, a Veteran, a professional writer, and a blogging enthusiast in the heart of uber-Liberal Austin, TX.” It has a nice mix of local and national news that’s well worth checking out.
Blogroll Additions: UrbanGrounds
February 11th, 2012First New Nuclear Reactors Since 1978 Approved
February 10th, 2012This is good news: “A consortium of utilities in the South won government approval Thursday to construct two new atomic energy reactors at an estimated cost of $14 billion, the strongest signal yet that the three-decade hiatus of nuclear plant construction is finally ending.” The new reactors are going in at reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia. Or its good news except for “massive federal loan guarantee and other incentives.” The only incentive they should get is shielding from the inevitable frivolous lawsuit from those segments of the green community who oppose the only practical zero-emission power generating technology available.
Though not in that story, the two reactors appear to be using Westinghouse AP1000 duel-loop pressurized water reactors, which is a significant improvement over current working American reactors (and the Fukishama reactors). Personally I would have liked to see a move to a more inherently safe reactor technology like pebble bed (it’s too early to expect commercialization of the molten salt design), but this is certainly a step in the right direction.
Blogroll Additions: An American Housewife, Formerly in London
February 9th, 2012I’ve been meaning to update the blog roll for a while, so now’s as good a time as any.
Today’s addition is An American Housewife, Formerly in London. She spent five years in London, then moved back to Houston, and blogs about a variety of issues, both personal and political, from the expat (and repat) life and mothering to the latest Obama idiocy.
Anyway, she’s been linking and dropping into BattleSwarm with useful comments for a while now, so I’m happy to return the favor. Do drop by when you get a chance.
Why the Tea Party Exists
February 9th, 2012This piece by Dan McLaughlin encapsulates why the Tea Party exists, and why it has to fight a willfully heedless Republican establishment, so well that I’m going to quote whopping great chunks from it:
As anyone with a passing familiarity with Republican politics over the past four or five decades knows, conservative magazines and think tanks have been making detailed entitlement reform proposals for most of those years, and Republicans running for offices high and low have been running on platforms of reducing the size and cost of government for just as long. And then nothing happens.
That’s why Congress’ battles over the debt ceiling and related issues provide such a potent example. Basically all Republican Senators profess to be in favor of smaller government, and yet so few are willing to go to the barricades to make it a reality. Now, I’m a realist – there are limits to how much we could expect even a completely united GOP to bring home as long as Obama is the President and Harry Reid the Senate Majority Leader. But the repeated spectacle of leading pundits and Beltway Republicans tut-tutting Boehner and company for even trying to use their leverage to exact real concessions is a sign that the message Republican voters have been sending is not getting through to everyone.
(snip)
The related point here – and one that says much about why RedState has put so much energy into intra-party primary battles rather than the production of white papers – is that personnel is policy. The ideas are already there; what is lacking is the necessary corps of people with the will to fight for them.
(snip)
The point of my essay was not to denounce anyone, but to explain the history and depth of the current popular distrust on the Right of leaders who seem unwilling to lead. The battle to restrain runaway government spending is so much smoke and mirrors unless the people who profess to support it in word are dedicated to it in deed. No wealth of position papers, endorsements and Power Point presentations can demonstrate that. Voters and activists who have figured this out are rightly skeptical of those who don’t seem to “get it”. And they are more than willing to embrace flawed champions – even such a creature of the Beltway as Newt Gingrich – if they demonstrate the willingness to actually do something to stop the runaway train of federal spending. Every time some Beltway figure calls Newt or some Tea Party candidate crazy, voters think again, “he might actually be crazy enough to upset some applecarts to get things done.”
Read the whole thing.
(Hat tip: An American Housewife in London, more about which anon.)
Texas Senate Update for February 8, 2012
February 8th, 2012Both the Senate race and the redistricting fight continue to grind on, with the primary date for the former dependent on the latter.
Dewhurst Tosses in Another $2 Million of His Own Money
February 8th, 2012David Dewhurst loaned his campaign another $2 million of his own money, according to his Q4 report. That’s a considerable chunk of change, but I imagine the Cruz campaign is breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn’t 5 times that much.
Another thing that strikes me about his Q4 report (which I have only given a cursory glance to, given there’s more than 800 pages to it) is Dewhurst’s incredibly high burn rate. He’s already spent $4,397,491. Some examples of what he’s spending money on:
The nice thing about being the “bank” in the race is that you don’t have to worry about funding a top-heavy campaign if you’re getting results. Is he? So far the Dewhurst campaign hasn’t knocked me out with its organizational skill. It’s competent, but I think both the Cruz and Leppert campaigns have been more obviously focused and effective at communicating. But I’m probably not the type of voter the Dewhurst campaign is trying to reach (as far as I can tell, Team Dewhurst reachout to bloggers and new media (beyond the obligatory Facebook and Twitter accounts) is non-existent).
EuroDoom Update for February 6, 2012
February 6th, 2012Greece and the EU are having their final showdown (I tell you final! This time we mean it! Lather, rinse, repeat!) over the Greek debt crises. Until they do it all over again two months from now.
Some people wonder just what all this has to do with the U.S. economy? Well, the one good thing about having a crack house at the end of the street: No one worries about how crappy your own house looks, because it’s great by comparison. But once the PIIGS start defaulting, getting kicked out of the EuroZone, or both, people are going to start to notice that Obama hasn’t mowed the lawn in months…
Metaphors! I mix them! Now back to all that exciting Euro-defaulting action:
The Market Pays What the Market Will Bear: Super Bowl Edition
February 5th, 2012Over on Facebook, a lot of people have their knickers in a knot over this picture of Super Bowl parking rates from WTHR:
The irony is that most of the people who are shocked, shocked at expensive pricing for Super Bowl parking are the same people who were caterwauling a few months ago about how it was unfair that the 1% had so much money. Well, guess what folks? The vast majority of people who can afford to attend the Super Bowl in the first place are among the 1%, or within spitting distance of it, So on the one day when local businesses can make a killing rooking Mr. Big Shot 1% because he wants to park his Ferrari or Escalade within walking distance, you get all outraged over “price gouging.” I guess because someone’s actually making a profit off Mr. 1% rather than the government stealing it from him to pay off the debt from your Masters in Women’s Studies.
A parking space has no “intrinsic value.” It’s worth whatever people will pay for it. (And while we’re on the subject Marx’s Labor Theory of Value is bunk. Just in case you hadn’t figured that out yet.) Why should you care that a guy who’s already paid $1,200 for tickets has to cough up another $200 for parking? No one’s forcing Mr. 1% to park there. The market pays what the market will bear.
LinkSwarm for February 3, 2012
February 3rd, 2012Charting Texas Senate Fundraising Numbers
February 2nd, 2012To make it easier to see how the fundraising race has progressed, I made a chart tracking donations to Ted Cruz, David Dewhurst and Tom Leppert:
Since this just tracks campaign donations, it doesn’t include self-funding, which both Dewhurst and Leppert have made extensive use of. After Dewhurst’s full Q4 FEC report is up, I’ll do another chart on those numbers.