Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Politics USA: Economy: Prez signs hugenormous Spending law in political-economic experiment

USA President Obama has responded to the spending/stimulus law written by the House of Representatives and the Senate.

"I do think that the possibilities of thinking inwardly are very great," he said. "And you see it happening. You see it happening to presidents. You see it happening to members of Congress and the Senate."

The president has also learned quickly that achieving a spirit of bipartisanship in Washington may be easier said than done. Obama's economic stimulus bill, which passed the Senate today in a vote of 61-37, has been widely criticized by Republicans.

Obama stressed that, given the current economic climate, "not doing anything is simply not an option."

"I think there are a number of different arguments that have been leveled at, at this recovery package," he said. "There are a set of folks who just don't believe in government intervening in the marketplace, period. ... I think that fight's already been won; the American people certainly think so. That's not the argument that makes much sense to them."
The tiny datestamp on the article cited and livelinked says Feb18,2k9; so I'll go with that. "Obama: 'There is no easy way out' for Wall Street," ABC News in assocation with USA Today, unsigned interview. So it's much like an editorial.

Demurring from the logic of the presidential criticism, here I just want to point out that the law, tho written at the President's behest by the Democratic Congressional leadership, House Speaker Pelosi, and Senate Majority leader Reid with their in-place Democrat-led committees, willynilly produced a "package" that may or may not lead to or achieve "economic recovery," a law the text of which inherently depends upon the validity of certain unarticulated assumptions--not least regarding overall presuppositions about the USA political economy. The nature of the law's confectioning requires acknowledgement of its quality as an experiment in whether the Pelosi-Reid law's newly-instituted expenses, grants, and porkupiney delicacies will actually work well together to buy the envisioned recovery of the economy.

Politicarp

Monday, February 16, 2009

Juridics: Tribal Pakistan: Country's govt approves Sharia Law in Talib-land

CNN commentator Campbell Brown gives us the gist when Pakistan "cuts a deal with the Taliban allowing a declaration of strict Islamic law."

Reporter Jane Perlez in Islamabad Pakistan adds the punch to the gist, Pakistan makes a Taliban truce, creating a haven," Feb17,2k9, International Herald Tribune
The government announced Monday that it would accept a system of Islamic law in the Swat valley and agreed to a truce, effectively conceding the area as a Taliban sanctuary and suspending a faltering effort by the army to crush the insurgents.

The concessions to the militants, who now control about 70 percent of the region just 100 miles from the capital, were criticized by Pakistani analysts as a capitulation by a government desperate to stop Taliban abuses and a military embarrassed at losing ground after more than a year of intermittent fighting. About 3,000 Taliban militants have kept 12,000 government troops at bay and terrorized the local population with floggings and the burning of schools.
Pakistan is building again toward a Islamofascist conflagration.

Politicarp