Tonight on The Independents: The Road to Hell

Friday night episodes of The Independents are organized around a theme. Tonight's installment (Fox Business Network, 9 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. PT, with re-airs three and five hours later) is all about how the best of intentions have often paved the road to policy hell, as this Reason TV video (which will be excerpted in the program) reminds us:

Among the policies to be highlighted: Affordable housing initiatives and affirmative action (which will be discussed by National Review Online contributor Deroy Murdock), ethanol and Obamacare (broken down by our own Peter Suderman), prohibitions on various vices (declaimed by Reason contributor Thaddeus Russell), TARP and stimulus (defended by former congressman Anthony Weiner), the Iraq War (explained by former Army Major General Paul Eaton), and federal education policy (Cato's Andrew Coulson).

Mary Katharine Ham will once again fill in for Kennedy, and I will close out my week-long stint in the hosting chair. Follow The Independents on Facebook at facebook.com/IndependentsFBN, follow on Twitter @ independentsFBN, and click on this page for more video of past segments.

Comments

[LynchPin1477]

It's not even noon yet!!

[AlmightyJB]

He must have stuff to do today. What does Matt Welsh do in his spare time?

[Swiss Servator, Alles Klar]

Cruises for chicks...

Well the girls would turn the color
Of the avacado when he would drive
Down their street in his El Dorado
He could walk down you street
And girls could not resist his stare
Matt Welch never got called an asshole
Not like you
Alright

[Fist of Etiquette]

Yeah I don't care for this at all.

[Sevo]

How about a discussion on the Fed Gov's ability to manage IT programs?:

"Social Security's $300M IT project doesn't work"
[...]
"After spending nearly $300 million on a new computer system to handle disability claims, the Social Security Administration still can't get it to work. And officials can't say when it will.
[...]
They found a massive technology initiative with no one in charge ? no single person responsible for completing the project. They issued their report in June, though it was not publicly released."
http://www.sfgate.com/news/pol.....643072.php

Aren't you glad the gov't takes care of the important things we need?

[Sevo]

Oh, but now we know where the emails went!

[alan_s]

I don't even give them credit for good intentions. It's all about control and nothing else.

[Toki Wartooth]

Its for the children.

[Drake]

So tune in to see Anthony Weiner get a beating.

[Bobarian]

Are you subscribing to his selfies being posted?

[Bobarian]

Sorry mis-read that, thought you wanted to see Anthony's weiner get a beating.

[Raven Nation]

Perhaps this is good news - maybe they couldn't find a bigger name willing to defend the stimulus and TARP?

[Lady Bertrum]

So, half days on Friday for Matt? Trying to beat traffic to the Hamptons?

[GILMORE]

"Summer hours"

[GILMORE]

If we're going to hell, i hope Kennedy wore Red.

[AlmightyJB]

If it's actual hell, she's wearing green.

[Derpetologist]

Speaking of hell, here is the cult documentary Africa: Blood & Guts

War is never pretty anywhere. Warning: very graphic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRIPxNb6hRY

[Notorious G.K.C.]

The boss comes by the cafeteria to chat with the workers about "soccer and the economy," among other matters.

http://www.catholicreview.org/.....ign=buffer

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Oops, put that in the wrong place.

Let me look at that documentary...

[Derpetologist]

You see, the Pope is just a regular guy like everyone else.

Except he's infallible.

[Derpetologist]

You see, the Pope is just a regular guy like everyone else.

Except he's infallible.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Only infallible when speaking from the chair on matters of Catholic doctrine.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

The boss comes by the cafeteria to chat with the workers about "soccer and the economy," among other matters.

http://www.catholicreview.org/.....ign=buffer

[Francisco d'Anconia]

INDEPENDENTS ASSEMBLE!

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkXIYgsvO0c

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Really?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l482T0yNkeo

[Francisco d'Anconia]

You were waiting to do that since noon weren't you?

That's actually one of their better songs.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Took me fricken six minutes to find this thread. /shakes fist.

Anyway. I blew up at the table tonight at my sister's boyfriend about Israel and Hamas and the clown Trudeau. He was getting too derpy for me and laughing at my comments. So I stared him down and didn't budge. On my father's birthday no less. And what the frick is Pabst beer anyway? I kept drinking that Milwaukee swill.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

f3 is your friend.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

f3?

I'm slow. 'Splain.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Press f3 key.

type in text or portion of text you are searching for. Example: The In.

Scroll through hits.

Profit.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I owe you.

[Bobarian]

pabst is the drink of hipsters. Way back in the day, Pabst was like #2 in the Midwest, behind Budweiser.

I had a Pabst a couple weeks ago, cause someone left it in a buddy's fridge.

Atrocious.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

If this doesn't get bumped no one is going to find this thread to participate in.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

You're asking a lot.

Matt and Kmele are role playing for tonight's show.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Enjoy your last interruption free TI show tonight boys.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

You know, I could picture the devil looking a lot like Matt if he were to take human form.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Prediction: Hoops.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

No hoops! That we can see.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Exactly.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Hot... Mary Katherine Ham.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

So, roast Ham? Her chair is in front of the monitor showing flames.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

The civil rights act.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Welfare.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

The income tax.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Couldn't they just wall off NYC and make that affordable housing?

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Call me Snake.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Exactly.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Stop agreeing with me. I'm frightened.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

The New Deal

[Francisco d'Anconia]

The Great Society

[Fist of Etiquette]

Wait a minute. There's only one party panelist?

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

The minimum wage

[Fist of Etiquette]

It's not that they didn't want to be called racist, it's they didn't want what came with that.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Affirmative Action is over. A Black man was elected to the highest office of government. The credits have started rolling over the whole "institutional racism" thing.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

{prolonged hysterical laughter}

[Heroic Mulatto]

It is a farce, isn't it?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

And one of the wealthiest people - a womyn no less - is black. Say Oprah.

[Derpetologist]

Oh, hush. Everyone knows Jews, Chinese, Irish, and Italians could not have possibly succeeded without affirmative action to combat institutional prejudice.

Just look at Sri Lanka- the affirmative action quotas for Sinhalese help smooth over friction with the Tamils. Thus leading to complete harmony!

/derp

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Wanna know what affirmative action was for the Jews, Chinese, Irish, Italians and Polish?

Their fists.

[Derpetologist]

Ah, but there is an even more powerful weapon- whining.

Now witness the power of this fully-operational battle tantrum!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Huh. Kmele Foster might be racist. I didn't realize that.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Also, racial preferences hurt the very people they were meant to hurt. But who cares about whites and asians?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Weiner? That hot dog?

[Derpetologist]

Hmmm. The program with the worst unintended consequences. That's tricky.

I'm going with War on Drugs. It was supposed to make the country healthier and safer. Instead, it's clogged up the jails, enriched terrorists and criminals, made a mockery of the criminal justice system, turned the police into an occupying army, and has maimed, killed, impoverished and imprisoned millions.

Yeah, that's worst one. But not quite as bad as Nicole, of course.

Larken Rose thinks the pols intended the War on Drugs to be this way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CfRC60d8_Y

[Francisco d'Anconia]

I'm guessing this will be #1.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Does Larken live in NH?

[Derpetologist]

Pennsylvania, I think. But he has been a regular at PorcFest.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Ah, I see. His outdoor vids always remind me of here.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah. Betting Manziel is gonna go bust may not be so bad to lay down.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_.....ofessional

Ryan Leaf anyone?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Ryan Leaf is a grade-A asshole. I bet he's doing well on the prison team, though.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah but Manziel is not that far off.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Eh, once upon a time, I used to have hobbies and free time.

Anything after 2009, I have to look it up.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

You speak the troot.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Suder-Man!

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Wish I could fly like Suder-man.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Suderman, Suderman, does whatever a suder can. Can he swing from a web? No he can't, he'd get sued. He is a Suderman.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Suderman, in the pocket of Big Corn Chips.

[Aloysious]

You mock, but try eating salsa without corn chips. It's just not right.

/picks up glass of bourbon, swills.

[Derpetologist]

Hmm. My bet is the #1 item will either be the income tax or the Federal Reserve.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

The Who!

[GILMORE]

Why Weiner?

Hell is other people, and him in particular, I know... but is there something more specific? I wasn't listening.

[GILMORE]

The Independents Attire Review, 25 June 2014

Other People-Edition

- Matt: Is the shirt Blue? Or Grey? I can't tell because either my color-reception is *that* bad. Fortunately this doesn't matter at all, because Matt is wearing the blue tie with white/grey stripes, and either choice of shirt would be *perfect*. Matt's failure to fail (aside from Wednesday's Pink Nightmare) as frequently as we have been used to is a source of rising concern - as the traditional, primary function of this review is to find horrible things about Matt every night.

- Kmele, the Healed: Returns to the bloom of health by donning what we feel is the most life-affirming jacket in his wardrobe - the ever-reliable Kakhi blazer. While the blue tie w/checked shirt fails to evoke italian desserts, its the next best thing on the menu.

- Ham, MK1 Mod 0: We have little to offer MKH tonight, saying only the black works great as a background canvass for the colored necklace. She takes the win tonight simply for being 'different' and less bored with her job than everyone else.

- Sudermonster: We see the return of drastic-neck gaps. Peter = see a tailor. While i think the grey jacket isn't horrible with the pink tie, it produces more of a 'boat-house cocktail hour' look than you'd want on a news program, and this would have worked better with something darker.

Kwakwh

[Fist of Etiquette]

This is recycled from a month ago?

[Heroic Mulatto]

I'm conflicted about Kmele's boutonniere/lapel pin thingy.

Convince me either way.

[Trials and Trippelations]

My wife and I went to Ali Baba's today. That is a really great market!

[Heroic Mulatto]

I love their olive bar...but I find the pita bread is better at their other store. Still, AB is the only place I can find Chang beer in Manchester.

[Trials and Trippelations]

Speaking of beer, we decided to buy tickets for the Granite State Brew Fest tomorrow. I am stoked.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Nice. Alas, I'm going on vacation to the mountains with my family tomorrow. So no beer for me!

[Trials and Trippelations]

Mountain vacation sounds nice. It's nice to see green on hills and mountains again.

[GILMORE]

Heroic Mulatto|7.25.14 @ 9:28PM|#

I'm conflicted about Kmele's boutonniere/lapel pin thingy.

In the early days of this review, Kmele's lapel-thingy was a nightly source of comment. We abandoned that theme a while back after Kmele popped in and basically said there was no rhyme or reason to them and he just had a bottomless barrel of these things and put new ones on all the time without any particular thought or purpose (paraphrase, and apologies if this is slightly off)

i basically discounted them from that point on as 'non factors'. On a personal level, I'm just not that much of an accessories guy *at all* - tie clips, pins, lapel devices, etc, anything. I see young people now using them frequently when they 'dress up' and it looks entirely wrong for unshaven kids to be wearing tie pins, etc.

Kmele, by contrast, makes everything 'work' one way or the other.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I agree with you about accessories. The most superfluous thing on my jacket is my pocket square. I am for sprezzatura in my style, I don't want it to look as if I put a great deal of thought into what I put on that morning.

I also agree that Kmele's pin works, if what he was going for was a bit of whimsy. It's nothing I would wear when "business, serious business" was on the agenda, though.

[GILMORE]

oh, the date?...

meh... template fail.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Meh? Only the scoundrel is blas? about shoddy craftsmanship.

[GILMORE]

fair enough.
Its weiner. i am overwhelmed with ennui

[Fist of Etiquette]

Oh, that's what that is? I thought someone slipped me some tryptophan.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Oooo, < i The Independents pulls out the shaky whore cam footage.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Puritans...

[Rufus J. Firefly]

One Burlesque woman even hired Bart.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I very much enjoy the four-way split screen.

[Fist of Etiquette]

WHAT'S THE WHITE POWDER??? I want some.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Oxy-Clean.

[Aloysious]

Real men don't call women whores. We just call them.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Yeah, it's the China-Man influence negatively affecting American work ethic.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Well, what with all that opium.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I don't want the state involved in my life. Just in the other guy.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Hey, bulldog.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Buckle up for Weiner's derp.

[Fist of Etiquette]

IT'S ALWAYS BUSH'S FAULT, ISN'T IT, WELCH?

[DK]

#1: The US Constitution.

All the others I'd argue they didn't have the best of intentions - they knew exactly what they were doing - gaining control and power.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Please get Weiner to defend Bush.

[Aloysious]

There's that stoopid Weener.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Most of it was paid back?

Is he serious?

[Bobarian]

A lot of the TARP was paid back, much of it by loaning money from the Fed at 0.0%.

The Stimulus was a much greater waste than the TARP.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Yeah, we know that those free-marketers support consolidation.

[GILMORE]

The extend of Weiner's economic knowledge could be written on the underside of a bottle cap. It probably amounts to "SPEND MORE"

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Fear, fear, fear, FEAR!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Welch wisely stops the ensuing argument over certainties about alternate timelines.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Here you are with the ability to print money"

[Aloysious]

Who looks Derpier, that stupid Weiner or Schumer...

ugh, what a mental image.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

ugh, what a mental image.

Weiner fucking Schumer in the ass while reaching around and rubbing Schumer's boobs.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Goddamn you.

[Aloysious]

You almost put me off my tasty adult beverage.

Almost.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Speaking of which, I need a refill...

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Jesus, Francisco.

Fuck.

[Fist of Etiquette]

He's obviously SugarFree's less verbose sockpuppet.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

No, you're thinking of my son.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Foster cannot be happy having to stay silent about Weiner's claims about what would have happened.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Weiner says "it should have been much larger."

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Why is it, in hard times, the private sector gets lean, but government needs to keep people on the job?

He's got the perfect name.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Why not a billion trillion dollar stimulus? WHAT'S THE ARGUMENT AGAINST THAT?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah was gonna write how much is enough?

Why not just take over the economy?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Muscular Stimulus? Muscular Christianity!

[Fist of Etiquette]

It appears the Iraqi military and police collapsed without American leadership.

[Bobarian]

this is exactly what happened, plus multipliers (drones, bombs, competent reaction capabilities)

[GILMORE]

re: MK Ham

When i was a teenager, I had a crush on Jo from Facts of Life.

which i have been recently reminded of.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You were gay as a teenager?

[GILMORE]

I thought tomboys were hot.

What, you didn't? I never dug Blair. i liked Punky Brewster too.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Mrs. Garrett. Obviously.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

FOE doing Mrs. Garrett in the butt.

/giggles.

[GILMORE]

Surprised the General was comfortable giving a straight up "No".

kudos for it.

[GILMORE]

Though the 'why' would have been more interesting. Matt, next time try and ask the 'definitive' question as the opener!

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Oh, this is Fox Biz? Sure, I'll give an honest answer. Who the hell's going to hear it?"

[GILMORE]

(rim shot)

[Fist of Etiquette]

Education? That's number one?

[Bobarian]

That has been an extremely long road we've been on.

[GILMORE]

Matt has clearly been taking lessons in "Kennedy-style" elocution... like a bizarro-world version of 'My Fair Lady'....

[Fist of Etiquette]

I say we gauge success in education by tallying up their paychecks at the end of their lives.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Students? What happens if they are a scion of a wealthy family and are going to be all set anyway? If they want to be antiquarians, wouldn't success be judged by their motivation?

[Fist of Etiquette]

It's not my fault if they don't live their lives to the test.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Andrew, you are not the father!

[GILMORE]

I'm such an elitist. I'd want to give them a quiz on 'great books of the western world', and have them explain some basic economics ideas like 'time value of money'.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Or even better. Have them read "Wealth of Nations" followed by Mackay's "Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds".

Once they fully understand both books: Bam! Education done.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Foster is whistling past the Skynet.

[Fist of Etiquette]

AH! Lou Dobbs.

[GILMORE]

...dooooooooooooooobbbbbbbbbbbbsssssssssss