We trawl the blogs so that you can sound smart without even trying.
In the shadow of the Capitol…
The Daily Kos reported that over two-thirds of the nation is affected by Federal judge vacancies. This Federal judicial crisis is in part due to the exceptionally long amount of time that judicial nominees have to wait for confirmation in the Senate, and in part due President Obama’s slow nomination process. How do we maintain a system of checks and balances if we can’t even get cases heard in court?
Paul Krugman argues that the so-called free market capitalists are overlooking basic economic theory by their position against pollution taxes or tradable emissions permits. He states that pollution is the classic externality that leads to market failure and, therefore, elementary economic theory says that to reach a true market equilibrium, the government must adjust for these externalities.
Jon Stewart interviewed Ron Paul on his candidacy for president and his libertarian policies. Stewart’s strategy for getting the media to take Ron Paul seriously, photoshop his head onto Chris Christie or Sarah Palin.
How does the reporting of Solyndra stack up to other political screw-ups that cost taxpayer dollars? Media Matters reports on how media coverage of Solyndra has been out of balance with the true cost of taxpayer money. While the numbers are pretty interesting, the report seems to forget to take into account the larger political implications of Solyndra. Solyndra has blown up not because of loss of taxpayer dollars, but because Obama used the company as a prime example in support for his new jobs program.
On the Wonkblog, Sarah Kliff discusses whether the reported 9 percent hike in health insurance premiums can be attributed to the CARE Act. Based on analysis from the Aon Hewitt consulting group, Kliff blogs that the vast differences in coverage of current policies and the low number of provisions that have actually gone into effect for the CARE Act means that conclusive numbers of a correlation between heath insurance premiums and the CARE Act will be skewed and unhelpful.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
In New Mexico, redistricting for three of the U.S. House districts will be settled in court after the Democratic Congress and the Republican Governor failed to reach a compromise. Many legislators argued that this will be a waste of taxpayer money, but is necessary since current districts are unconstitutional following the results of the 2010 Census.
Florida, meanwhile, has thrown the Republicans into a tizzy by rescheduling its presidential primary for the last day in January 2012. To maintain their identity and preserve their way of life, Iowa and New Hampshire will now have to hold their primaries earlier in January, forcing all the Republican candidates to swarm both states at the end of December. Maybe they can get a ride from Santa.
wcldems 