Leadership

The Washington Post covered President Obama's arrival in South Korea this week:

Obama arrived on the base 3:19 p.m. local time (1 a.m. Eastern Standard Time) and received a rousing welcome from 1,500 troops in camouflage uniforms, many holding cameras or pointing cellphones to snap pictures.

"You guys make a pretty good photo op," the president said.

...

He got a huge cheer when he told them he was increasing military pay. "That's what you call an applause line," he said, before boarding his jet and taking off at 4:11 p.m.

Tea Party Effect: Healthcare Edition

Gallup reports a 12-point rise in the number of people that rate American healthcare as excellent or good. Someone must of put the fear of godvernment in 'em.

Obama Approval

Jay Cost at RealClearPolitics takes another look at Obama's job approval: "One can't help but wonder if a legislative success on the health care package will result in a further decline in the President's job approval rating." That dovetails with an earlier post by Jay: How to Divide a Party in Three Easy Steps.

Ed Martin on Big Government and Healthcare Reform

Ed Martin on the growth of government and reforming healthcare

Early this month, I spoke with Ed Martin, Republican candidate for the US House of Representatives in Missouri's 3rd district. In this segment from that interview, Ed talks about the growth of government and the steps we should take to truly reform healthcare.

Dean of Harvard Medical School on Healthcare Reform

Jeffrey S. Flier in the WSJ Health 'Reform' Gets a Failing Grade:

Instead of forthrightly dealing with the fundamental problems, discussion is dominated by rival factions struggling to enact or defeat President Barack Obama's agenda. The rhetoric on both sides is exaggerated and often deceptive. Those of us for whom the central issue is health—not politics—have been left in the lurch. And as controversy heads toward a conclusion in Washington, it appears that the people who favor the legislation are engaged in collective denial.

Read the whole thing.

Algorithmic Authority

Clay Shirky argues that our perception of authoritative sources of information is changing such that we are showing greater trust in automated information sources. He describes those sources in A Speculative Post on the Idea of Algorithmic Authority:

Algorithmic authority is the decision to regard as authoritative an unmanaged process of extracting value from diverse, untrustworthy sources, without any human standing beside the result saying “Trust this because you trust me.” This model of authority differs from personal or institutional authority, and has, I think, three critical characteristics.

...

the criticism that Wikipedia, say, is not an “authoritative source” is an attempt to end the debate by hiding the fact that authority is a social agreement, not a culturally independent fact.

Senate Healthcare Bill

Politico reports that the Senate healthcare bill: "In the Battle of the Health Bills, the Senate wins out, bulk-wise – weighing in at 2,074 pages." Read the bill!

Booksellers want to blot out the Sun

Clay Shirky writes about the American Booksellers Association's open letter to the Justice Department asking Justice to investigate the competitors the ABA's members can't profitably compete against. The article is great throughout—Shirky has a keen grasp of the economics, technology, and social change involved—so please read all of Local Bookstores, Social Hubs, and Mutualization:

Internet use is as widespread as cable TV, and an internet user in rural Utah has access to more books than a citizen of Greenwich Village had before the web. Millions more books. Like record stores and video rental places, physical bookstores simply can’t compete for breadth of offering and, also like the social changes around music and moving images, the internet is strengthening rather than weakening the ability of niches and sub-cultures to see themselves reflected in long-form writing.

The internet also moderates the competitive threat, because the competition is only a click away. Amazon lists millions of books, but so does eBay, and publishers like O’Reilly or McGraw-Hill or Alyson can sell directly to the reader. If you had to choose between buying books only offline or only online, the choice that maximizes the number of ideas in circulation is unambiguously clear. Even if all but a dozen online booksellers were to vanish, there would still be more places to buy books on the web than there are bookstores in the average American city today.

Congressional House Call: Joe Wilson

ConservativeTVOnline.com has video from the Congressional House Call. Here Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC) rallies the crowd at the Capitol.

Obama Dithers

POLITICO's Mike Allen reports continued dithering by President Obama: "SHANGHAI, China – President Barack Obama made no effort to conceal his irritation when his press corps used the first question of his maiden Far East trip to ask what was taking him so long on Afghanistan."

Congressional House Call: Michele Bachmann

ConservativeTVOnline.com has video from the Congressional House Call. Here's Michele Bachmann (R-MN) speaking to the crowd in Washington, DC.

SEIU does Ballot Fraud

Big Government: Union and Whistleblower Complaint Documents SEIU Ballot Fraud: "A sworn declaration from an SEIU whistleblower says that senior SEIU officials instructed organizers to violate election rules during the mail-in, secret-ballot vote, and then destroyed evidence of the violations."

The Hill reports that Doug Hoffman 'unconcedes' in N.Y.-23 House race:

Hoffman conceded the race on Election Night after learning he trailed Owens by 5,335 votes. But the Syracuse Post-Standard reported last week that the margin had shrunk to 3,026 votes after recanvassing.

St Louis Tea Partiers Cover HCAN

Sharp elbows his way into an HCAN Rally

The always entertaining SharpElbowsSTL provides some color commentary in the above video of Saturday's HCAN protest. No wonder the HCAN clowns want the public option—their protest operation is on life support.

Meanwhile, Bob McCarty ventured into the belly of the beast. Bob entered the 2009 Healthcare-Now.org National Strategy Conference as a journalist and has posted video of the major speeches on YouTube. Here's his full coverage:

• Radical Ideology Exposed at Healthcare-Now National Strategy Conference in St. Louis (Videos)
• Labor Boss Says He Hopes to ‘Take the Corporate Community and Its Greed Out of the Picture’
• NOW President Announces Single-Payer Push
• Victimhood Alive, Well at Single-Payer Conference
• Single-Payer Advocate ‘Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing’
• Single-Payer Advocates Told to ‘Get Arrested’
• Single-Payer Advocate Says White House Lost Debate on Government-Run Health Care
• NOW President O’Neill Slams Catholic Bishops
  

Calling All Missouri Bloggers

The Show Me Institute is hosting a blogger convention this coming Saturday at the Sheraton Hotel in Clayton:

As more cuts are made at mainstream news media outlets, there are fewer reporters keeping tabs on what local and state government officials are doing. Increasingly, bloggers have stepped up to break stories, or call attention to issues that are being ignored. The Show-Me Institute is hosting its first blogosphere event to help train and support both Missouri bloggers who are working to help keep government transparent, and citizens who want to learn how.

Several prominent St Louis area bloggers will be presenting. Here are the logistics:

What: The Show-Me Institute’s first blogosphere event
Date: Saturday, November 21, 2009
When: 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
How much: Free with RSVP
Location: Sheraton Hotel, 7730 Bonhomme Ave. Clayton, MO 63105

Complimentary breakfast and box lunch provided, complimentary parking. Please RSVP.

Congressional House Call: Scott Garrett

ConservativeTVOnline.com has video from the Congressional House Call. Representative Scott Garrett (R-NJ) speaks to the crowd in Washington, DC.

Congressional House Call: Roy Blunt

ConservativeTVOnline.com has video from the Congressional House Call. Here's Roy Blunt's (R-MO) comments to the crowd on the capitol steps.

2009 Christmas Spending Projection at Record Lows

Gallup: Christmas Spending Forecast Reverts to Record 2008 Lows:

Americans’ estimate of the total amount they will spend on Christmas gifts this year is now $638, essentially matching the record lows from November and December 2008. Fewer Americans say they will be spending less on gifts this year than said this a year ago, while most say they will spend the same amount.

Texas Governor says Obama taking U.S. toward socialism (video):

Gov. Rick Perry had some pretty strong comments about the Obama administration on Wednesday in Midland, saying, “This is an administration hell-bent on taking America towards a socialist country.”

If they're that upset, Texas does have the constitutional option to succeed from the US. I just don't think they want to defend all of their borders against illegal immigration.

Mail Online reports NATO Labrador Sabi found safe after being lost in fierce Afghanistan battle: "A sniffer dog that went missing in action after a battle in Afghanistan has been found safe and well after more than a year in the desert."