(( meatspace ))

Interesting column. One of the things that occured to me is that Federalism is actually a weak Hayekian barrier, in that most social change is restricted to a state-by-state change, so there’s no reason to implement a fairness-promoting principle (gay marriage) on the national stage until it’s been implemented locally (Vermont, Massachusetts, Hawaii) and shown to be not harmful. Assuming, of course, that DOMA is upheld, which I believe it will be.

This is what makes the Federal Marriage Amendment so dangerous. It attempts to make these local initiatives impossible to implement, and lock in this policy. It literally is a Dred Scott moment. Fortunately, since it was a cartoonish attempt intended to fail, I’m not worried about it.

One further note on DOMA — I do think part of DOMA will fall (and before the rest of it is repealed and gay marriage implemented nationally). That is the part where the Fed refuses to recognize state gay marriages. I don’t like that at all. It usurps the states right to define marriage that DOMA defines elsewhere.

… of the real reason that dethroning Bush should be a bipartisan affair.

But he leaves out the third reason–the big reason, the Elephant-in-the-Living-Room reason–to run screaming into the night at the thought of a big Bush initiative. Even if it were well-intentioned (and not just cover for another round of right-wing class warfare), even if Bush were willing to make difficult choices (which he has never shown any ability to do), the Bush administration is still incompetent, and its attempts to make policy have almost invariably been horrible botches.

and reminds us of an 18 month old challenge from Daniel Davies:

Can anyone… give me one single example of something with the following three characteristics:

1. It is a policy initiative of the current Bush administration.
2. It was significant enough in scale that I’d have heard of it (at a pinch, that I should have heard of it).
3. It wasn’t in some important way completely f***** up during the execution?

I know of exactly one, and it wasn’t that big — the EPA program to make non-vehicular diesel engines (mostly generators) comply with the same environmental regulations that already applied to diesel trucks. If you’ve got another one, “bring it on”.

I don’t have much to say about this, other than the fact that I think it’s ultimately important to read. It’s kind of presented as a human interest story — more about Mrs. Darby dealing with the press than Joe — but the ugly reaction to a man who can only be called a true patriot, a winter soldier, if you will, is all too predictable.

The Conscience of Joe Darby

Jon Stewart, from last night’s daily show:

Novak ends with the only logical conclusion about the book: “Unfit for Command sends a devastating message, unless it is effectively refuted.” Because in this country, when a scurrilous charge is made against you, by people, you’re guilty! Unless you prove otherwise! That’s how it works! Kudos, Robert Novak, you truly are a douchebag of liberty.

The Salt Lake City Tribune meditates on all the attention given to Lori Hacking. Their conclusion?
“Go Away.”

… via FAIR

Here’s something I don’t understand. Supposedly, if you ask people who they’d rather have a beer with, Bush or Kerry, people say Bush. Now, first of all, I’d like to see actual numbers, because this sounds like received wisdom left over from 2000, when Al Gore wasn’t “likeable”. But, more importantly — don’t people know that Bush stopped drinking on his 40th birthday? You can’t have a beer with him!

BUSH: THE MISSING YEARS

On the daily show tonight, Jon Stewart was challenged by his guest to name 3 achievements of Kerry in his 20 years in the senate. Off the top of my head, I could think of three. None of them happen to be legislative, because 1) the senior Senator from his state tends to be involved in that a lot, so Kerry deferred to him, and 2) his experience prior to joining the senate was as a prosecutor and lt. governor, not legislative. This plays in his favor for presidency, mind you….

1: Iran-Contra
From the Boston Globe:

[Kerry] had spent the spring [of 1986] conducting an unauthorized investigation into reports that the Reagan administration was illegally providing aid to the rebel Nicaraguan Contra armies, which were attempting to overthrow the left-wing government of that Central American nation. At this closed session, he planned to urge the committee to launch an official probe… As the senior Republican on the committee, [Jesse] Helms was the key to Kerry’s hopes… In the course of their investigation, Kerry and his staff had found evidence that some contras had ties to drug smuggling. If there was one class of villain that Helms deplored as much as the communists, it was drug traffickers… As Kerry finished his presentation, the senior members turned to Helms, taking his temperature on the issue. “Jesse? What do you think about this?” asked Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the panel, according to a transcript of the then-secret session… “I will tell you what I do not support, and John Kerry and I have talked about this: anybody sending drugs into this country,” Helms told his colleagues. “I do not care whose side they are on.”

2: Brought down BCCI.
From the same page:

BCCI was an international bank of Middle East origins whose employees asked few questions of their wealthy and powerful customers, making it a favorite of arms merchants, drug dealers, despots such as Noriega, and intelligence agencies. At the CIA, which sometimes used the bank to launder its own activities, it was known as the “Bank of Crooks and Criminals.”… Kerry’s investigation, launched in 1988, helped to close the bank three years later…

3: Led the reconciliation with Vietnam including the reckoning of POW/MIAs with John McCain.