a scratch pad for half-formed thoughts by a liberal political junkie who's nobody special. ''Hard Heads, Soft Hearts'' is the title of a book by Princeton economist Alan Blinder, and tends to be a favorite motto of neoliberals, especially liberal economists.
mobile
email

 
I just finished reading your article, "The Spectrum
Lords". I believe you have showed me the most clear,
outright, buck-naked example of legalized theft
possible. Apart from strolling over to the Treasury
and helping themselves to the till, it's hard to see
how they could be any more explicit.

And of course, since it involves the broadcasters, I
imagine the issue is positively radioactive to any
ambitious pol (and, perhaps, to any ambitious pundit?)
. But I would be very interested in what the ConIntern
(Jacob Weisberg's memorable phrase for the
Conservative media elite) thinks. If you can support
just handing the spectrum rights to private parties,
instead of auctioning off the rights on behalf of
taxpayers - well, it's hard to imagine what you
wouldn't support.

It strikes me that this spectrum issue would be a good
way of separating the wheat from the chaff, i.e. the
politicians who are well-meaning and honest,
regardless of ideology, versus those who are more
loyal to the influence-peddling establishment than
they are to the people. And it would be a useful to
see which conservative intellectuals are genuinely for
a free market, and which ones are just for the rich.

In any case, great article. I'll look for an
opportunity to call and plug it on C-Span. However,
what happened to your much-anticipated comments on
Edwards and ' 04? Did it just slip your mind? In
thinking about '04, I vaccilate between thinking that
Gore is probably the best of the lot , while knowing
that Gore is probably the only mainstream candidate
who could possibly lose to Bush.
posted by Anonymous at 9:18 PM