The International House of Bacon

* Not shockingly, BarackObama’s tax returns are being pored over, and plenty of unfair attacks are cropping up. One I heard a few times already (and is detailed somewhat at the link provided) is a criticism of Obama’s charitable contributions. Yes, I’m consistently annoyed that richer-than-myself politicians don’t give much money yet push for more taxes that will only end up hurting me. Yes, I know full well that Obama’s charitable contributions seem to trend much higher when he becomes a national name. He also published two very successful books in that time, and had a lot more money, so I’d expect someone who can afford to give $25k to his church to be able to ramp up other giving at the same time. The more important question is whether Obama violated the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act. If this is generally true, well, that’s just another fraudulent slash on his record - can’t change the tone if you can’t follow the rules yourself, Obama. Of course, the problem is the rule, but Obama struggles to understand that simple point, so perhaps beating him over the head with it a bit might help. Same Old Washington Politics.

* Does Clear Channel not want you to know about the XM/Sirius merger? Wouldn’t shock me.

* Rick Astley on RickRolling. Believe it or not, I wasn’t a huge fan of the whole RickRolling phenomenon, I just find the more recent examples and attention interesting.

* Iran isn’t a threat, right? Why are we trusting the United States intelligence community at all right now? I really need to know the answer to this - they missed 9/11 by a mile, they screwed up on WMD, they can’t get Iran straight, and that’s just the damage we know about. I’m not saying we need to bomb Iran here, but exactly what is it going to take to clean up the homeland intelligence community? Having a President and three candidates to succeed him who trust government implicitly certainly aren’t going to clean house over there, that’s for damn sure.

* QandO covers a lot of information on the Antarctic ice situation. Climate is weird.

* Reason’s editors haven’t exactly been kind to John McCain, and for good reason. But they do have a point - if earmarks are your problem, McCain provides a refreshing solution. A bright spot in his spotty candidacy.

* For now, I’ll end on QandO’s compilation of Obama’s positions on oil companies and where he gets it completely wrong. It’s very well-sourced, and it’s a good example of how completely out of it Obama is. Obama thinks the answer to oil prices is stricter regulation and windfall taxes on oil companies, even though the big oil companies (your Chevrons, Exxons, etc) only control roughly 10% of the current known supply, the rest being in the hands of nationalized companies or governments themselves. When the Saudi Arabians own 20% of the oil reserves on their own, trying to lower prices by going after the companies that own roughly 6% is not a logical place to go. Even today, consumers pay more to the government in direct taxes than they do to actual profits for oil companies, and that doesn’t begin the discussion of how much the absurdly high taxes on these companies pass along on the consumer end. But will we ever see Obama (or anyone else, for that matter) call for the abolition of gas taxes? Of course not.

* Finally, the Club for Growth makes a great statement on Bush’s legacy. For all the moronic protectionist things Bush has done over his term, his overall record has shown a definite expansion in free trade. Credit where it’s due.

More soonish.