Akkam’s Razor

• Island of Broken Dreams | Newgeography.com - Indeed, land use regulation throughout the New York suburbs downstate, in New Jersey and Connecticut has long since rationed land for development. As a result, once loose mortgage loan standards became the practice, house prices escalated. Throughout the New York metropolitan area, the Median Multiple – median house prices divided by median household incomes rose from 3.2 to 7.0, in the decade ending in 2007. In traditionally regulated markets – like Long Island in the past and still much of the country in the present – the Median Multiple has been 3.0 or less for decades.

• Talking Points Memo | The Palin Effect - Palin was a surprising pick– virtually unknown outside Alaska (including, as it turned out, by the McCain campaign itself)– and she lacked experience (a key talking point for McCain). But her effect was supposed to be three fold– a woman and feminist for life, she'd pick up disgruntled Hillary supporters, an avowed Christian, she'd consolidate and energize the religious right, and with her youth and self described Mavericky ways, she'd counter Obama's fresh enthusiasm.

  Two months later? Not so much. The Palin Effect exists– but it's not energizing the base. On the contrary. Of the 70 odd conservative politicians, pundits and newspapers that have turned from McCain to endorse Obama this fall, 38 of them have cited Palin as a significant contributor to the decision. Hover over for quotes, and click on the pictures for links. And enjoy.

see Sarah Palin pictures

It’s not even election day, and already the GOP is taking out the long knives. I’m unsure if McCain picked Palin as a stunt to woo the unicorns PUMAs, as a dog whistle to crazy-baselanders, or as a patsy for his increasingly probably defeat. In any case, the coalition of convenience formerly known as the GOP three legged stool of social conservatives, policy and pundit conservatives, and fiscal conservatives is rapidly coming off the rails. We can only hope that the GOP is too busy dealing with their own insurgents to pay attention to any of the real work getting done in picking up the pieces of eight-years of GOP-rule.

Popularity: 8% [?]

All via Wordle.net:

Bush’s Bailout Speech

McCain from the Debate

Obama from the Debate Transcripts

Popularity: 4% [?]

This really should come as no surprise, as McCain has an established track record of pulling the ejection handle or rapid reverses.  By now you’ve certainly heard that John McCain has ’suspended’ his campaign.

(Yeah, yeah - I know its an F-16, an Air Force jet, and the Thunderbirds.  But it works…)

This morning, the WSJ reports the following occurred:

…and if they did, they’d probably agree with it.

Many of us are making a big deal out of Sarah Palin’s inability to articulate the paramount legacy of this White House - The Bush Doctrine [wiki]. Here is a partial transcript and video of her interview with Charlie Gibson of ABCNEWS (more at HuffPo):

GIBSON: Do you agree with the Bush doctrine? PALIN: In what respect, Charlie?

GIBSON: The Bush — well, what do you — what do you interpret it to be?

PALIN: His world view.

GIBSON: No, the Bush doctrine, enunciated September 2002, before the Iraq war.

PALIN: I believe that what President Bush has attempted to do is rid this world of Islamic extremism, terrorists who are hell bent on destroying our nation. There have been blunders along the way, though. There have been mistakes made. And with new leadership, and that’s the beauty of American elections, of course, and democracy, is with new leadership comes opportunity to do things better.

GIBSON: The Bush doctrine, as I understand it, is that we have the right of anticipatory self-defense, that we have the right to a preemptive strike against any other country that we think is going to attack us. Do you agree with that?

PALIN: Charlie, if there is legitimate and enough intelligence that tells us that a strike is imminent against American people, we have every right to defend our country. In fact, the president has the obligation, the duty to defend.

I’d like to make an effort to formally define the Bush Doctrine, to provide context for its existence, to examine its success, and to look at future challenges.

Regardless as to your political leanings, the Bush Doctrine exists for one reason and one reason only - to reinforce the Unitary Executive Theory, weakening what, to this point, had been the sole responsibility of Congress over the Executive Branch - the ability to declare war. Similarly, it seeks to remove any external, non-domestic restrictions by foreign bodies over US actions, including international agreements and treaties. In short, the US, as the sole remaining superpower (after the fall of the Soviet Union) would have the justification for acting unilaterally against any threat. This is further quantified by allowing the ability to wage preemptive war against perceived threats both in the near- and long-terms. In short, it means never having to say you are sorry.

Popularity: 9% [?]

These are my links for August 12th through August 13th:

• Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos - Words - particularly from books - as bodyart.
• The Washington Monthly: The Burbs - Matt points us today to a discussion on the Freakonomics blog about the future of suburbia in the face of increasing gasoline prices. The consensus view is fairly grim, but it reminds me of a few random points about urban land use that have been on my mind for a while. There's no big overarching point here, and nothing especially original, just a few thoughts that don't seem to get much attention in blogospheric discussions of the burbs.

It's been seething under the surface, aimed particularly at John Edwards and Mike Huckabee.  But as long as we remain distracted from the abstract and remote threats of the Culture War, the War on Immigration, and the War on Terror, and instead choose to worry about the cost of the war in Iraq as well as the nations own precarious financial system (which starts with the subprime mortgage market), the political race (and the races in the Senate and House of Representatives are going to be trending away from pro-Elitist messages in favor of strong traditional-Populist rhetoric.  (That's not to say that we haven't experienced targeted populistic campaigns in the past - Immigration, Welfare Reform, and Faith-Based Movements are all 'populism', in the sense that they act as popular dog-whistle within their own natural constituencies).