The International House of Bacon

* I’m glad that someone’s taking the alternative view on the gas tax holiday, and Bryan Caplan’s piece in the New York Times is pretty much the best argument that will gain no traction. I think the holiday is a poor idea because “holiday” implies (or ensures, depending on your perspective) that the tax will be reinstated. The problem with the holiday is that it’s too short - by the time we can see real changes in the pricing, it’ll be time to put the tax back into place. Given that the tax is a relatively small piece of the revenue pie (Which hovers from $30-40b depending on the source (here’s one)) and that state dollars aren’t always allocated properly, it’s a tax we could do without on a longer-term basis. You’ll never see Obama or Clinton push for that, though - while a $27 savings over a summer might not be much except for the very, very poor, you’re getting into the hundreds or perhaps thousands for some if there’s a moratorium on those taxes. That’s good politics and good economics, but that’s not the Democratic way at present.

* Want my superdelegate vote? That’ll be $20m, please.

* A blog post I read reminded me of the craziness coming from the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, and the toppling of the statue. I recall a lot of people looking at the wide view picture and automatically assuming the event was staged because, well, the crowd was small and the pictures were tight and the tanks were everywhere, ignoring the point that anyone came out to begin with. I’m wondering if we’ll see any sort of similar commentary on this Obama rally, which was presented as a full house. Of course, major events in war do have a difference of scale to a campaign stop and context is clearly necessary, but considering the Obama narrative of the campaign from the media, surely this is a clear manipulation of the situation. The question is - for what?

* A story and video of the treatment of an anti-abortion demonstration at a college. This is kind of shameful, regardless of what side you fall on.

* The CQPolitics blog puts some context in the Republicans voting against McCain in the primary meme being floated.

* Power Line on Obama’s improbable history. There are a lot of problems with Obama’s position on “speaking with our enemies” beyond historical context, but that’s for another time.

* Finally, Israel turns 60 today. Happy birthday.