The International House of Bacon

Gotta plow through these a bit today…

* Good luck to the End the Income Tax groups in Massachusetts. They got 45% in 2002, we’ll see what happens this year.

* A very interesting piece from ABC about Obama’s propensity for blaming his staff for gaffes. It does happen a lot, it appears. It’s interesting - in my mind, it could be entirely reasonable that his staff is somewhat less than 100% competent on these matters, but whether he’s using them to cover his backside or being 100% honest, is that really a change at all from the perceived leadership of the last 8 years?

* I agree with the blogswarm - this piece is pretty fawning, and I have a lot of personal doubts that the media will be doing its job this summer. How they can give Obama a free pass on so much in this is ridiculous.

* This New York Times piece is interesting in the context of foriegn relations. I could care less that Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law and left to be a Christian (I had said Catholic earlier, but old habits die hard and this is more accurate), or that it could cause some interesting problems in terms of international diplomacy, but it does throw an incredibly odd wrinkle into the process that a lot of people may think about. Of course, this information will be preyed on by the wrong people who’ll make the wrong connections, but it’s still a very different take on what could occur.

* Bob Barr is officially running. The Libertarian Party convention is in a few weeks, I’m a little scared.

* RedState makes a valid case for experience.

* Locally, we’re finally seeing some activity in getting my local representative, Carol Shea-Porter, out. Now, if only John Sununu would get moving…

* Fun with statistics: the price increases on stamps are greater than the increases on gasoline.

* An odd take in the Washington Post, describing evangelicals who believe that we may “deserve” an Obama presidency in line with prophecy. Somehow, I don’t think John had the second coming of Jimmy Carter in mind when writing the Book of Revelation, but hey…

* Congratulations to Homeland Security, which achieved zero compliance as of the 11 May deadline for Real ID. I promise, I’m not at all complaining about that outcome.

* Finally, check out this music video by unsigned Manchester, UK bank The Get Out Clause. They had no money in the budget for camera crews, so they performed in front of CCTV cameras and then requested the footage from the government per the Data Protection Act. Pure genius, and the song is pretty good, too.