• Government Officials Fiddle While Public Pensions Burn
  
• What To Do About Putin's Invasion Of Ukraine
  
• DC Elite Have An Escape Hatch From Obamacare
  
• We Can Oppose Bigotry Without Politicians
  
• Russia Tightens Grip On Crimea
  
• Ukraine Is Hopeless, But Not Serious
  
• Cuomo Using State Resources To Build Up Crowds At Events
  
• The 80s Called, Do We Want Their Foreign Policy Back?
  
• Obama Making Threats In The Middle East...To Israel
  
• Obama To Hit Campaign Trail Pimping Minimum Wage Increase
  
• Heed George Washington's Words
  
• The President's Prophetic Threats To Israel
  
• Five Point Plan
  
• Why We Keep Getting Putin Wrong
  
• Teacher Caught Living Ace Of Spades Lifestyle In School Hallway
  

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Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:00 AM | Comments (148)
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Happy Monday. March. Huh.

Former IRS official Lois Lerner may or may not be taking the Fifth again when she appears for testimony at House Oversight on Wednesday. There seems to be a little confusion on that point.

The Obama administration says it's going to offer Russia a combination of sanctions threats and a "diplomatic way out" of Ukraine, but the Russians aren't talking like they're looking for a way out. In fact, it looks like they're still looking for more ways in.

People are still finding fun ways to screw up their lives on social media.

And, if I can borrow MPPP's thing for a second, here's a Hollywood-ish story for ya:

[ RSS]

[On iTunes]

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:50 AM | Comments (258)
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The Biggest Political Donors

Are NOT the Koch brothers contrary to what every Democratic hack will tell you.

In fact the Koch brothers don't even appear until position #59 - which means that UPS and the National Beer Wholesalers Association give twice what the K Bros do to the GOP yet get almost none of the irrational lefty hate.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:30 PM | Comments (577)
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[We Politely Request That All Off-Topic or Political Comments Be Directed to the Open Thread down page, Which Will Serve Officially as the Current "Active Conversation" Thread for All Discussions Not Related To This Topic. Enjoy!]

Welcome again to the Spaced-Out Challenge! Whether you have a question about equipment, a new astronomical discovery you want to expand on, or just want to kick back and enjoy the cosmos above, come one come all on our weekly astronomical journey.

This week, we continue our beginner's guide to the Messier Marathon, the best nights for which are coming on Saturday, March 29th, and Sunday, March 30th. We stopped our hunt of Charles Messier's “nuisance nebulae” around Midnight, leaving our galaxy for island universes beyond. Now, it's time to go straight into the heart of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. Tiny smudges of light, some fuzzy, some with faint arms, but all right before your own eyes: a view at the grandest of scales we can see. Come, let me show you. more...

Posted by: CAC at 04:35 PM | Comments (54)
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If you want one.

I put up a True Detective thread, below.

Posted by: Ace at 05:03 PM | Comments (257)
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If you want one.

I put up a True Detective thread, below.

Posted by: Ace at 05:03 PM | Add Comment
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Because a few people asked, and I'm not putting up news anyway.

Posted by: Ace at 05:02 PM | Comments (74)
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Because a few people asked, and I'm not putting up news anyway.

Posted by: Ace at 05:02 PM | Add Comment
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First, thanks for listening to the first Special Podcast on the DoD Budget I did with Bryan McGrath. It was recorded before events got crazy in Ukraine but it's worth listening to given the events of the last few days and what it will mean for US policy.

Second, we need a better name than Special Podcast. I'm going to try to do one or two of these a week so they won't be very special soon.

On to this week....

As some of you may know I'm opposed to legalization/amnesty for the 11 million or so illegal immigrants in the US. I was interested in talking to someone who took the other side of this contentious issue and was fortunate enough to get Daniel Garza of the Libre Initiative to discuss this and something I do support, outreach to Hispanic voters.

We did agree on a number of things (a general desire to see the legal immigration system reformed) but disagreed sharply when it came to amnesty.

I'm not sure how many minds are out there to be changed but whichever side you are on, Daniel is a passionate advocate for his side.

As with the previous interview/debate this runs about 30 minutes.

[ RSS] [iTunes] [Download] [Ask The Blog]

You can follow both Daniel and the Libre Initiative on Twitter.

As always, thanks to Andy (@theH2) for his technical voodoo that makes this happen.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:07 AM | Comments (133)
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ItÂ’s hard to keep up with fast moving events (like this) so I thought IÂ’d run through some of the bigger picture items.

I know itÂ’s popular on the right (and even among some liberals) to say that ObamaÂ’s weakness, as evidenced by his failure to follow through on Syria, emboldened Putin but I donÂ’t buy it.

Recall that in 2008 Vladimir Putin undertook a similar operation in the South Ossetia region of Georgia. Was George W. Bush viewed as weak and vacillating by Putin? Had Bush appeared to the world as week and unwilling to use military force in a crisis?

If BushÂ’s decisive, unilateral, cowboy persona didn't lead Putin to lay low, why should we assume that launching a few cruise missiles (remember "just muscular enough not to get mocked"?), would have been a decisive factor in PutinÂ’s Ukraine calculations?

Would a President Romney have made a difference? Again, I doubt it. While Romney has been vindicated for his view of Russia (and Obama again to be shown to be naïve) it’s hard to believe Romney’s presence in the White House would have altered Russia’s view of its interests in Ukraine. These interest are what ultimately drive Russia’s actions.

A few things to consider:

Ukraine is a major trading partner of Russia.

It was to be a cornerstone in PutinÂ’s customs union which was/is to be an alternative trading bloc to the EU. When Ukraine flirted with joining the EU and wrecking the Russian plan things began to escalate.

Many of RussiaÂ’s gas pipelines, carrying the source of RussiaÂ’s wealth, run through Ukraine.

Russia has been fanatical about access to a warm water port since Peter the Great. Do you really think they were going to risk losing access to their outlet to the Black Sea and from there the Mediterranean?

In general, the Russians have spent the last 20 or so years watching areas that they think are rightly part of their sphere of influence aligning more and more with the west. Now the largest, most important, and historically closest part of the former empire is wrecking your economic dreams and throwing in with their opponents, the Russians were going to simply shrug because Obama threw some missiles at Syria or Mitt Romney was in the White House? ThatÂ’s fanciful at best.

Putin made a very simple and accurate calculationÂ…no US President or European leader was going to go to war over Ukraine.

more...

Posted by: DrewM at 05:56 AM | Comments (426)
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