Thomas Friedman envisions a grand compromise

Here. In brief, he imagines Republicans, including the Tea Party laying aside their principles and going along with the Democratic program, all in the name of bipartisanship. And his Obama lays down yet another cloud of rhetorical squid ink, while promising to do a better job of explaining himself to the thick American public. Well, at least Mr. Friedman isn't dabbling in The Totalitarian Temptation this time.

The Debt Ceiling Deal

Haven't had a chance--and probably won't--to read through it. But I've heard people on talk radio slamming it, and the libs at Huffington Post slamming it. So, it looks like a typical government consensus monster, tossing a bone to all the factions, who were insisting on steak.

As for how we got here, in truth the U.S. has been broke since World War II. IMO the fight to reign in federal spending was fought and lost in the Reagan years. The two-year period in the mid-Aughties when Republicans controlled everything was wasted, because not enough of them were serious about the public debt. The Tea Party candidates have fought as single issue representatives--they are only there to reduce spending. They are probably right when they say that if they don't fight now, they will have no standing to fight later, and they will be voted out. But the fickle public will probably vote them out even if they succeed, if certain programs are affected. So, they are probably single-use reps, in addition to being single issue.

The stimulus? It failed, drag it out back and bury it. But we will probably instead fall victim to the usual Washington logic: Did the government program succeed? Expand it to ensure future success. Did the government program fail? Expand it to ensure future success. Galvanizin­g frogs legs will make them jerk, but it won't bring them back to life. So it is with the zillions wasted on the stimulus. Better to let the economy revive and strengthen on its own, rather than be stuck with a zombie economy, which collapses as soon as the electrodes are removed.

Question for Senator Harry Reid and President Obama

If default is the end of the world, why is cutting spending even worse?

Budget talks break down, default looms

Ever get the idea you're watching a snowball fight on the decks of the Titanic, after the iceberg has struck?

"I hate all bungling as I do sin, but particularly bungling in politics, which leads to the misery and ruin of many thousands and millions of people."
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Federal debt showdown drags on, default looms

To paraphrase Thomas Paine: "I prefer prosperity. But if austerity must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in prosperity."

An overlooked Obama achievement

You know that wall of text making the rounds, touting Obama's achievements, in answer to conservatives who claim he hasn't done anything? One accomplishment of Obama's that doesn't appear on it is this: Back last summer he signed legislation protecting Americans against "libel tourism".

Libel tourism was most famously used by a Saudi moneybags, who objected to an American writer exposing his funding of terrorist front groups. He successfully sued her in not in American courts, but in British courts, where 20 of her books had been sold by mail order.

So this legislation is welcome, but not so much by the Left, who do not really believe in free speech, nor in the jihadist threat. They bitterly cling to their exploded memes that everyone is the same except for headgear and cuisine, and that everything would be wonderful if they could only kick out and shut up the bad guys and install the good guys--of their choosing, of course.