This evening, HRI presented a discussion on the role of human rights in sustainable development featuring Jeffrey Sachs and moderated by Human Rights Law Professor Peter Rosenblum. The conversation ranged from an overview of the distinct histories of human rights groups and sustainable development initiatives and their recent convergence to the dangers of downplaying international law and the inadequacies of analyses from a human rights perspective.

A slightly bizarre column was printed in the Spectator today advocating a campus-wide ban of flyers promoting student groups and events. The word "bizarre" is perhaps appropriate because of the suspect reasoning employed by its author, whose understanding of college students and the university setting is incomplete.

Frank Rich laughs in the face of those who thought Obama was losing ground.

Daniel Henninger doesn't care whether Obama is losing or not, but knows that his stimulus plan is a joke.

David Ignatius ignores politics completely and sets out to save the financial industry from itself.

And Maureen Dowd finds Obama laughing at his veep and joins in the fun.

Frank Rich thinks we are really, really screwed and isn't sure what to do.

Thomas Frank wants us to wake up and smell the coffee: bipartisanship is stupid.

And George Will grabs a sledgehammer and heads towards Russ Feingold's house.

The prospect of nationalizing banks, particularly BofA and Citi, has been popping up everywhere recently. In his latest column, Paul Krugman argues in favor of nationalization on the premise that it is not only the only remaining option, but the natural course of action in a case like this. Rick Newman, however, wants everyone to take a deep breath for at least enough time to realize just how "scary" the prospect of nationalization is. With the Dow still on the slide, many are still wondering what the right thing to do is.

Maureen Dowd can't think of anything else, so blames Bush for ruining Obama's life.

Frank Rich thinks Obama looked like a hero and Jindal like a tool on Tuesday.

Daniel Henninger thinks Obama's will be a radical presidency and makes clear his fondness for the word "radical".

David Ignatius thinks the wise men should have whipped out their Superman uniforms and stopped this crisis dead in its tracks.

Kathleen Parker leaps to the defense of Bobby Jindal: it wasn't him, I swear!

Will Wilkinson’s post on Friday got me thinking about the public vs. private education debate, the two sides of which are essentially as follows (if anyone needs a refresher): Democrats favor more spending on public education while Republicans favor putting that money toward vouchers for use at private schools. It occurred to me that the argument for ditching public education in favor of private schools (based on the often correct notion that private schools are better and on the idea that parents should be able to choose their child’s school) makes the assumption that education is a good or service offered to the market. This assumption is dangerous though, and is representative of what’s been holding the U.S. back in education standards worldwide.

The rest after the jump...

Bailey's post just below this one reminded me of something I had intended to write about but hadn't gotten around to. This has to do not only with the recovery bill but also relates to political battles that will take place in the future between Democrats and Republicans.

Republicans are incapable of governing responsibly. And let's not kid ourselves, the president knows that too. Yet, he put the tax cuts into the stimulus bill that Republicans would have wanted (not the middle class tax cuts which were his idea, other tax cuts) in the beginning so that he could take credit for them. This was bad political strategy and his first mistake.

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Gov. Paterson supports President Obama's mortgage plan and hopes people are still listening in the wake of his plummeting poll numbers.

Daniel Henninger bemoans the decline of Reaganonomics.

David Ignatius talks about talking with speed in the Middle East.

George Will decides he's been shamed enough recently and rants about corn.

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) needs a reality check. His frustrating inability to effectively control his Senate has made Democrats look asinine multiple times in the past couple of months: the bewilderingly weak way in which Reid gave Joe Lieberman everything he wanted, the infuriating anonymous hold put on the President's scientific nominees by the blue team's rogue du jour Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) for completely unrelated reasons, and now Reid's conspicious failure to count to 60 to pass what was supposed to be a routine holdover omnibus spending bill.

Apparently Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was thinking the same thing in a meeting with Sen. Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) in which there was "yelling and swearing". But the Senate leadership's pandering to selfish moderates who realize how much power they can now accumulate is throwing a wrench in too many items on the Democratic agenda. Reid needs to adopt a firm, no-nonsense policy and stop letting unhelpful Republicans tack on as many amendments as they want. And he needs to learn how to count.