Liberal Talk Radio

Links Mentioned: Forbes explains financial reform … Gen. McChrystal’s strategy in Afghanistan … David Brooks wonders if Obama, like Brooks himself, lacks a sufficiently large sack.

Links Mentioned: Frank Rich … Tom Friedman … the state of the public option … Hillary’s cell phone diplomacy.

The Obama white house is backing Sen. Olympia Snowe’s trigger proposal for the public option in the health care debate. If insurance coverage becomes too expensive in a given region, the trigger kicks in and the public option is created.
I think the idea is pure fantasy. The idea that some future congress will [...]

What does it say about our country that smart policy ideas are routinely shelved out of fear of ill-informed public ridicule?
Ahh… democracy.

The Wall Street Journal has a great piece on the decline of the GM brand that tried to be different.
The long and short of it is that the union tried to make Saturn more like the rest of GM, while management cut off R&D funding.

Last night’s epic Phillies-Rockies NLDS game which Philadelphia won 6-5 began way, way too late for east coast viewers. The 10:07 p.m. Eastern start time meant that the game didn’t end until nearly quarter after two in the morning — criminally unfair for Phillies fans. The mostly explicit reason: TBS wanting to air the Yankees-Twins [...]

Sorry folks, no podcast this week. The professor is off vacationing in an undisclosed European socialist paradise. No doubt he will regale us with stories of good food, modern transportation systems, and other aspects of life in a 21st-century Communist hellhole upon his return.

I used to love the Olympics. Really I did. Even the patriotic schmaltz-fest that was the ‘96 Games in Atlanta holds a special place in my heart (watching the Men’s Gymnastics finals, some friends and I put together our own version of a mixed-media relay … I’ll save that story for another time).
So [...]

Links Mentioned: Saturn deal goes sour … Iran cuts a deal … Jane Jacobs … Stanley McChrystal