Posts Tagged ‘Barack Obama’

Politics roundup

  • Romney’s view of government benefits as politically hypnotic mirrors a “gratitude” fallacy advanced by many progressives [Julian Sanchez, Cato]
  • Ascendancy of “constituent services” on Hill is a bad sign on many levels [Fred Bernstein, NYT]
  • Dems vs. ACLU: platform vows to obliterate Citizens United [Damon Root]
  • Union-backed “Protect our Jobs Amendment” (POJA) ballot proposal, constitutionalizing “collective bargaining” concept, would take Michigan down path of Italian labor law [Emilio Rocca, CEI “Open Market”]
  • Isn’t it sad there’s a major political party contemptuous of science? Actually there are two [Alex Berezow/Hank Campbell, RCP]
  • Yale unions defeat uniformed-worker unions in battle to take over New Haven government [NH Independent] SEIU almost had Connecticut-5 House seat in pocket, till FBI arrested candidate’s finance manager [PSI]
  • Checking up on the outcome of a 1995 class action co-repped by attorney Barack Obama [Hans Bader]

“Obama *did* ‘let Detroit go bankrupt'”

Good Tim Carney column on the Dems’ absurd posturing in Charlotte on the auto rescue. “Here’s the truth: what Romney proposed for Detroit was more or less what Obama did.” (For extra credit, observe the parallel with some GOPers’ insistence that RomneyCare was utterly dissimilar to ObamaCare in every respect.) More: National Review; Reuters on the Chevy Volt.

Related: Romney’s ridiculous “jobs I’ll create” commercials [Ira Stoll]

September 10 roundup

  • Employee “moons” corporate brass, court upholds his loss of $2 million in commissions [NYDN]
  • Just what you always wanted to win in a class action: a 15%-off Bed Bath & Beyond coupon [PoL, compare]
  • Seven Camden, N.J. students made to eat lunch on cafeteria floor will get $500,000 [Courier Post Online]
  • “Lawyer Submits A Five-Page Brief — In Comic Book Form” [Tucson Weekly]
  • “Sunlight Before Signing: Measuring a Campaign Promise” [Jim Harper, Cato]
  • Judge Alex Kozinski cast as an extra in “Atlas Shrugged II” [Above the Law]
  • “Recusal Motion Cites Girl-Scout-Cookie Purchase” [Lowering the Bar]

Politics roundup

  • “Someone tell Gov O’Malley that Swiss bank UBS is helping build a Maryland bridge.” [background; State of Maryland, PDF, via Dan Alban] Dems’ trade xenophobia escapes ire aimed at GOP’s purported immigration xenophobia [Barro] “Buried in the 2012 Democratic platform: Official declaration of war on Switzerland.” [@daveweigel]
  • Are you better off than you were four years ago? Kyle Graham traces that question back to 1900, and no doubt it’s older [ConcurOp]
  • Fact-checkers snooze during Dems’ Lilly Ledbetter show [Ted Frank/PoL, Hans Bader/Examiner] Read in full context, Obama’s “you didn’t build that” remarks “would inspire largely the same reaction.” [Larimore, Slate]
  • Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is least surprising Dem endorser of the year, as Overlawyered readers have reason to know [Betsy Woodruff, NRO, on Morgan & Morgan connection]
  • Great Society legacy: tax-funded nonprofits play key role in NYC corruption [Steven Malanga, WSJ]
  • “Details of the Auto Bailout You Won’t Hear in Charlotte” [Dan Ikenson, Randal O’Toole, Cato; Tim Carney, Washington Examiner (“Here’s the truth: what Romney proposed for Detroit was more or less what Obama did”); Shikha Dalmia on Gov. Jennifer Granholm]
  • HHS welfare waivers: fact-checkers, check thyselves [Kaus, more, Steve Chapman]

“Federal asset forfeiture continues to skyrocket under Obama”

No mercy to errant vehicles, bank accounts, pharmacy shelves or medical marijuana dispensaries: “The Justice Department’s asset forfeiture fund under President Obama is the largest it’s ever been, having grown from $500 million in 2003, to $1.8 billion in 2011, according to a new report from the GAO.” [Mike Riggs, Reason]

P.S.: Scott Greenfield on rational forfeiture in Chicago.

July 14 roundup

  • Does new Obama directive gut 1996 welfare reform law? [Mickey Kaus (“in 2008, Barack Obama didn’t dare suggest that he wanted to do what he has done today”), Bader]
  • Ringling Bros. v. animal rights activists: court throws out champerty claim, allows racketeering claim to proceed [BLT]
  • Iqbal, Twombly, and Lance Armstrong [DeadSpin, Howard Wasserman/Prawfs and more]
  • Abuse claims: “Retain the statute of limitations” [New Jersey Law Journal editorial] Insurance costs squeeze NYC social services working with kids, elderly [NYDN]
  • Court upholds sanctions vs. “staggering chutzpah” copyright lawyer Evan Stone [Paul Alan Levy, Eugene Volokh, earlier here and here]
  • Court says board members of NYC apartment co-ops can be sued personally over alleged bias [Reuters]
  • “FASB retreats from disastrous litigation disclosure requirement proposal” [Alison Frankel, Reuters via PoL, earlier]

ObamaCare decision roundup II

  • The article everyone’s talking about on John Roberts’s switch [Jan Crawford, CBS] But who were her sources?
  • “ObamaCare Lost on the Medicaid Mandate & Commerce Power. It May Yet Lose on the Tax Power” [Michael Cannon, Cato]
  • The ultimate, and I do mean ultimate, link roundup [Joshua Matz, SCOTUSBlog]
  • Opinion reactions: Steve Chapman, Michael Barone.
  • A view from Left: conservatives lost Thursday, and purported silver lining’s not even tin [Lemieux] NFIB v. Sebelius “the most important court victory for liberalism in my lifetime.” [Joey Fishkin]
  • Not Marbury, no way, no how [David Wagner, Ninomania]
  • “Polarization and legitimacy: why we’re wigging out” [Will Wilkinson, The Economist]
  • Call off the celebrations, it’s just a satire: “Supreme Court Strikes Down All Laws Signed By Barack Obama” [Balkin]
  • Don’t forget that Cato’s star-packed event looking at the meaning of the NFIB v. Sebelius decision will take place live on the web tomorrow, Monday, Jul. 2, 1:30-4:45 Eastern.
  • And I’ll be the guest on the “Pundit Review” show this evening at 7:30 Eastern on Boston’s RKO with Kevin Whalen to discuss Thursday’s ruling.

NFIB v. Sebelius quote of the day

“For those of us who oppose the Affordable Care Act as a policy matter, this is a bad day,” [Georgetown law professor Randy] Barnett said. “For those of us in this fight to preserve the limits of constitutional government, this is not a bad day.” [Ezra Klein; more from Prof. Barnett at Daily Beast] Similarly, at more length: Sean Trende, RCP via Tom Smith, Right Coast. Contrasting views: Ilya Shapiro, Philadelphia Inquirer (“an unfortunate convergence of two unholy strains of constitutional jurisprudence: liberal activism and conservative pacifism”); Ramesh Ponnuru (“The resulting law may be a better one than Congress wrote. It is not, however, the law that Congress wrote.”).

And here is a podcast from the Cato Institute with colleagues Roger Pilon, Ilya Shapiro, Trevor Burrus, Michael Cannon, and Michael Tanner:

And a video interview with Trevor Burrus here. Don’t forget, if you didn’t check in on it at the time, yesterday’s periodically updated Twitter-scroll post with (at last count) 43 tweets and dozens of links to relevant posts and resources.