Month: September 2014

The Northeast is dying on the vine.

That is… a remarkable shift.

Deep in a recent report, for example, the American Legislative Exchange Council tabulated how the drop in population relative to the rest of the nation cut the region’s power in Washington. While the states from Pennsylvania to Maine had 141 House members in 1950, they are down to 85 today, a drop of some 40 percent.

And I fully expect that in eight years I’ll be hearing more about how the 2020 Census is going to shift power away from the Northeast even further. Which is going to tick off a lot of Northeasterners, but not as much as it will the Californians when they find out that they’re going to lose a seat for the first time. Continue reading The Northeast is dying on the vine.

Pruitt v. Burwell gets decided against government, starting up the #Obamacare subsidy rodeo again.

Here is the state of play:

Today’s ruling was in Pruitt v. Burwell, a case brought by Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt.

These cases saw two appellate-court rulings on the same day, July 22. In Halbig v. Burwell, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered the administration to stop. (The full D.C. Circuit has agreed to review the case en banc on December 17, a move that automatically vacates the panel ruling. In King v. Burwell, the Fourth Circuit implausibly gave the IRS the thumbs-up. (The plaintiffs have appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court.) A fourth case, Indiana v. IRS, brought by Indiana attorney general Greg Zoeller, goes to oral arguments in federal district court on October 9.

Today, federal judge Ronald A. White issued a ruling in Pruitt that sided with Halbig against King, and eviscerated the arguments made by the (more senior) judges who sided with the government in those cases.

Continue reading Pruitt v. Burwell gets decided against government, starting up the #Obamacare subsidy rodeo again.

Book of the Week: Lord of Light (We hit a Patreon goal!).

Patreon link here: they need buttons, frankly.  Anyway: time to bring back Book of the Week as a regular feature.  I’ll do it every Sunday, so that I can remember it easily, but we’ll begin with one for the rest of the week: Lord of Light.  I mentioned it, like, five years ago, but it really is one of the best science fiction novels of the 1960s, and maybe the best one that Roger Zelazny ever wrote. It’s kind of about Hinduism (explicitly), kind of about Buddhism (explicitly), and kind of about how Enlightenment can take you over even when you don’t want it too; but it’s mostly just good. It’s so good, in fact, that I don’t know if anybody’s ever really tried to top it.

Continue reading Book of the Week: Lord of Light (We hit a Patreon goal!).

Roland Burris (D) tried to cash in* while still a US Senator.

Ah, Roland Burris lived up** to the finest traditions of his beloved Chicago Democrats:

[Roland Burris’s] name came up during a pre-trial hearing on Sept. 26 in a bizarre case against a businessman accused of illegally lobbying to overturn U.S. sanctions on the regime of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. Defense attorneys questioned Burris’ credibility as a witness because of allegations he was involved in a shakedown scheme during his time in the Senate.

Then-Sen. Burris offered to promote a business to the U.S. military in exchange for a $250,000 a year job when he left office, court documents allege. An FBI informant made the claim in 2012 during grand jury testimony, according to a transcript of the sidebar conversation between the judge and attorneys that was shared by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Continue reading Roland Burris (D) tried to cash in* while still a US Senator.

Our Healthcare situation, in two tweets.

Yikes…

…and yikes.

Although there certainly should be no panic about the latter point. The case is definitely problematical, but there’s no indication that there’s a respiratory form of the disease, which is the scenario that really scares everybody. What we have here is a nasty disease that can be fought.