Below The Beltway

I believe in the free speech that liberals used to believe in, the economic freedom that conservatives used to believe in, and the personal freedom that America used to believe in.

Archive for December, 2008

Time For The Holiday Haitus

by Doug Mataconis @ Monday, December 22nd, 2008. Filed under Blogging, Holidays, News About The Site, Personal

Once again, it’s time to but the blog on haitus for the holiday. I’ll be back at some point after Christmas depending on travel plans that are still up in the air, but definiately back up and running full time after New Year’s Day.
If I do pop in around here before 2009, it will be [...]

Inauguration Madness Update: Here Come The Crowds

by Doug Mataconis @ Monday, December 22nd, 2008. Filed under Inauguration Day 2009, Washington DC

The new crowd estimates for Inauguration Day are down slightly from the high numbers estimated last months, but still pretty high:
Officials are casting doubt on an early projection that 4 million to 5 million people could jam downtown Washington on Inauguration Day, saying it is more likely that the crowd will be about half that [...]

Disturbing Quote Of The Day

by Doug Mataconis @ Sunday, December 21st, 2008. Filed under Credit Crisis, Economics, Politics

From this year’s Nobel Laureate in economics, Paul Krugman:
This is the thing I’ve been afraid of ever since I realized that Japan really was in the dreaded, possibly mythical liquidity trap. You can read my 1998 Brookings Paper on the issue here.
Incidentally, there were a bunch of us at Princeton worrying about the Japan problem [...]

Happy Hanukkah

by Doug Mataconis @ Sunday, December 21st, 2008. Filed under Holidays

Dick Cheney = Richard Nixon

by Doug Mataconis @ Sunday, December 21st, 2008. Filed under Dick Cheney, George W Bush, Politics, U.S. Constitution

In a post earlier today about the damage the Bush Administration has done to the Constitutional doctrine of separation of powers, I noted this telling exchange between former President Nixon and David Frost during their now-famous interviews:
FROST: The wave of dissent, occasionally violent, which followed in the wake of the Cambodian incursion, prompted President Nixon [...]

Have A Holly Jolly Christmas

by Doug Mataconis @ Sunday, December 21st, 2008. Filed under Holidays

Apparently, the Christmas holiday season is about more than candy canes and egg nog:
WASHINGTON — ‘Tis the season for making whoopee.
The Christmas-New Year’s period produces a year-high spike in sexual activity and conceptions in the United States, according to biorhythm researchers and makers of sex-related products.
They attribute the increase to holiday leisure and New Year’s [...]

Too Bad He Didn’t Listen

by Doug Mataconis @ Sunday, December 21st, 2008. Filed under Auto Industry, Business, Economics, Politics

Last week, Grover Norquist sent a letter to President Bush about the auto bailout:

What Color Is The Sky In Dick Cheney’s World ?

by Doug Mataconis @ Sunday, December 21st, 2008. Filed under Dick Cheney, George W Bush, Politics

I’m beginning to think that Vice-President Cheney has spent the last eight years experiencing a far different version of reality from the rest of us:
Vice President Cheney offered an unabashed defense of the Bush administration’s claims of broad executive powers today, mocking criticism from Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and saying the president “doesn’t [...]

Christmas Greetings From Below The Beltway

by Doug Mataconis @ Sunday, December 21st, 2008. Filed under Holidays

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions [...]

Balgo’s Dirty Laundry And Rahm Emanuel

by Doug Mataconis @ Sunday, December 21st, 2008. Filed under Barack Obama, Politics, Rod Blagojevich, Transition Issues

There seems to be increasing evidence that Rahm Emanuel may find himself drawn even further into the scandal surrounding Rod Blagojevich:
CHICAGO (AP) — Gov. Rod Blagojevich is legendary in Illinois political circles for not picking up the phone or returning calls, even from important figures like the state’s senior senator, Dick Durbin.
But there was always [...]

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