POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

1Nov/090

Steyn on Jarrett speaking trooooooooof! to pow-ah…

The appointment of a new "Blame Czar" and other amusing miscellany.  But he makes some fairly good points:

Ah, right. People “putting up signs.” Can’t have that, can we? The most powerful woman in the inner circle of the most powerful man on earth has decided to speak truth to powerful people standing in the street with handwritten placards saying “THIS GRAN’MA ISN’T SHOVEL READY.” Was it only a week ago that I wrote about this administration’s peculiar need for domestic enemies?

The Senior Advisor seems to have forgotten that she is the power. Admittedly, this is a recurring lapse on the part of the administration. There was Barack Obama only the other day blaming everything on the president — no, no, silly, not him, the other fellow, the Designated Fall Guy who stepped down as head of state in January to accept the new constitutional position of Blame Czar. Musing on problems in Afghanistan, Obama blamed the “long years of drift” under his predecessor. The new president — okay, newish president — has been Drifter-in-Chief for almost a year but he’s too busy speaking truth to the former power to get on top of the situation. It could be a while yet. In his more self-regarding moments, such as his speech to the U.N., he gives the strong impression that the “long years of drift” began in 1776.

It seems that Ms. Jarrett has forgotten just which side of the power relationship she and Obama are on; just who are the mau-mau-ers, and who the mau-mau-ees.  I mean, it's kind of hard to decry the inherent villainy of The Man ! when you are the man.  On the bright side though, Obama need not worry about the usual suspects accusing him of racism...

And Steyn has a particularly amusing post at "The Corner" where he contrasts the genuine pleasure that Indian Prime Misinster Singh enjoyed during his recent meetings with former President G.W. Bush, with the stunned Pakistanis following Hillary's recent scoldings; Smart Diplomacy Watch indeed.  As he snarks:

Good thing those arrogant swaggering Texas cowboys aren't blundering around the world screwing up America's global relationships anymore.

Both posts are pretty good, which is usual for Mr. Steyn, take a moment, read them both, and get a few laughs from stuff that otherwise might make you want to cry.

Rocketman

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8Oct/090

Is expansion of the house a cure for Congressional ills?

In keeping with Dan's anger and dissatisfaction at the current congressional state of affairs, I would like to present a tantalizing option to address that situation offered by NRO's Jonah Goldberg.  Essentially, he argues that the House of Representatives needs to be expanded for both equality in congressional district size as well as being a means to make the Representatives more directly beholden to the citizens from their districts.

In Federalist No. 55, James Madison defended the proposed Constitution’s apportionment clause despite its widespread unpopularity. The chief complaints, according to Madison, were that such a small Congress would become an “unsafe depository of the public interests”; that the districts would be too large and diverse for any politician to “possess a proper knowledge of the local circumstances of their numerous constituents”; and that such a tiny House would have the net result of attracting elitist types whose aim would be the “permanent elevation of the few on the depression of the many.”

So how big were these liberty-threatening districts? How tiny was the potentially oligarchic House? The districts had no more than 30,000 people, yielding 65 representatives. Under today’s apportionment system, the “ideal” congressional district is 700,000 people, with some districts reaching nearly 1 million. Montana, with a population of 958,000, has just one representative, but each of Rhode Island’s two districts has about 530,000 people.

There is, of course, an important principle here, and if all of Montana’s residents were black, it would be easier for everyone to see it. Montanans’ votes don’t count as much as Rhode Islanders’ — in fact, a Montanan’s vote only counts for about three-fifths of a Rhode Islander’s. That America’s slave population was counted by the same ratio under the original Constitution is usually cited, rightly, as one of the document’s greatest sins.

[emphasis-ed]

Read the whole thing.  Although it might be difficult to enact, or more accurately repeal the law mandating the size of the house, much like term limits, you never know what may catch on; especially with a population fed up with Congress as a whole!

Rocketman

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28Sep/099

Et tu, Cohen?

In the same vein as yesterday's post on Howard Fineman's epiphany, it seems that Richard Cohen has experienced a "road to Damascus" moment too; a money quote:

"The trouble with Obama is that he gets into the moment and means what he says for that moment only. He meant what he said when he called Afghanistan a "war of necessity" — and now is not necessarily so sure. He meant what he said about the public option in his health care plan — and then again maybe not. He would not prosecute CIA agents for getting rough with detainees — and then again maybe he would."

[emphasis-ed.]
It must be tough on the guys to realize that all of Obama's promises come with an expiration date. On the bright side, if an increasing number in the legacy media become disillusioned with the President stories like this may become a regular feature at POWIP...

(H/T AllahPundit)

Rocketman

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