The International House of Bacon

* I think Judicial Watch runs a pretty important thing for itself, but poking at Obama’s mortgage thing is a little overboard. Yeah, he got a good rate - there’s dozens of reasons why that happened that anyone can see. This is a bit of a waste and won’t go anywhere.

* Keep repairing those broken diplomatic ties, Obama. Yeesh.

* Change “Jesse Jackson” to “Pat Robertson,” and then tell me how this would turn out. The worst part is that this might actually help Obama.

* Is the tide turning on drilling?

* Finally, I often wish I lived in the golden age of cigarette advertising.

Slow day? Yeah, I thought so.

A great, relaxing weekend. Finally.

* So, the fun political news was the most expected unexpected shift in the Obama campaign yet, as Obama is now quibbling over his Iraq withdrawal plan. What his plan was (and still is on his website as I write this) involved “immediately” withdrawing troops from Iraq over the course of 16 months. This plan was re-specified at the ABC News/USA Today debate, described by Charlie Gibson as a “rock-hard pledge.” Now, today - well, he’ll be meeting with some commanders and the policy might change. Now, a lot of people have been trying to say there is no difference, but the difference is clear. McCain isn’t helping matters in this case, but, using Josh Marshall as an example, neither are the Obama apologists: Obama’s position on rapid withdrawal has been clear to this point, and he’s slowly abandoning it, more than likely because the situation on the ground there is simply too good to hold the ridiculous position he held. Even now, in his “clarity” statement, he’s trying to stop the bleeding by somewhat re-affriming his old, ridiculous position. Given the not-so-tiny pile of switches (some more important than others, some of which are completely unimportant), what can we expect next? Does he even have a real plan for Iraq? Is he going to stick with a pre-surge plan when the post-surge Iraq landscape looks so positive? When even the New York Times editorial page is getting fed up, doesn’t that say something?

* Gotta love arresting someone for a DUI when they didn’t drink.

* Gas prices in context. May explain why driving habits aren’t being affected quite as much as many may expect.

* On one hand, it’s nice to see someone debunking the whole “Obama’s birth certificate was a forgery” thing. I think there are segments on the right on the web who are too emboldened by the National Guard Memos bullseye that they fail to see things clearly anymore. On the other hand, that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy reading the theories from time to time. Either way, not complaining that I can safely ignore the birth certificate story.

* Here’s a shocker: wind power not all its cracked up to be.

* I found this sadly amusing out of Texas: Fireworks are illegal in Houston, but legal in bordering counties. People build stands outside the border to sell fireworks. How does Houston respond? By quietly annexing the roads the stands are on, allowing people to buy the fireworks legally, and then fining them when they turn on those roads. Such slimy crap.

* A follow-up from last week: Justice Kennedy: The Worst Justice. Lowry makes a good point here.

* I fear for my kids, and hope they don’t worry like this.

* Finally, some fun: Either Historical events as they may be depicted by 5 year olds using MS Paint, or the beginning of “Pork Week” at Salon.com. I have to say this much - bacon is trendy now, but I registered this domain sometime in 2002 because a friend didn’t want bacon on her cheese fries. I consider myself a bacon trendsetter, let the record show.

Race free edition!

* No, really - some meta-blogging here - if you’re going to comment, please be aware that there are people who may not think like you do, and as much as we might not want to mince words, sometimes we have to to get a point across, and that means going by the basic expected norms. This goes for everyone, even though yesterday was a tipping point of sorts - I don’t want to or plan to monitor everyone or set hard and fast ground rules, just remember that we’re all human beings here is all. We have great conversations with these posts, I’d like to not see this turn into a morass.

* Now, onto real issues: Obama wants to expand Bush’s faith-based initiatives. A more detailed explanation from the campaign can be read in PDF form here, and some statements from the man himself here. It’s okay that I find this whole thing completely laughable at this stage, right? Yet again, Obama, who was being praised again for this speech for its secularistic tendencies, decides to run from wherever he stood before to…what, exactly? I don’t even know who this is supposed to grab in this case, given his other positions. But this is still incredibly funny to me. I’m officially wondering where the line is for many of his supporters.

* More good news from Iraq: not only are we seeing great achievements in the benchmarks, but the Sunni boycott may be coming to an end. I still think Iraq is way overblown as an issue this election - the progress we’ve been seeing as of late almost definitely means that we’ll be seeing gradual withdrawals as we continue on anyway, and neither Obama or McCain are truly foolish enough to mess with that. Right?

* Surprise surprise - Justice Kennedy’s assertion about capital punishment for child rape? Not entirely true. I feel like this is what happens when you decide to create a “consensus” out of thin air.

* Yesterday marked 35 years of an all-volunteer military. Something to cheer about.

* The Heritage Foundation blog offers some comparisons with Obama’s tax plan and how it has affected others with similar situations.

* Oh, wait, something changed again - Obama apparently supports gay marriage now. Remember, he used to be against gay marriage. EDIT: I may have dove at this too early - this isn’t a de facto support for gay marriage, but it’s still an interesting move on his end.

* Obama in 2005: “We will NOT support the removal of [North Korea] from the State Department list of State Sponsors of Terrorism until such time, among other reasons, as a full accounting is provided to the Kim family regarding the fate of Reverend Kim Dong-Shik following his abduction into North Korea five years ago.” Obama in 2008: Apparently, as long as they meet disarmament conditions. I’m sure the Kim family is pleased.

* As gas prices rise, remember that Obama called for a global ban on fissile materials. You know, the stuff that makes nuclear power. The stuff that’s probably keeping demand for oil and coal-based energy at bay in many western nations. The stuff that could act as a clean, workable alternative for the United States very soon. Worth remembering.

* Obama’s also taking credit for welfare reform, even though he was against Clinton’s reform, against his state’s reform, and consistently dodged the question up to this point. Anyone want to tell me what positions Obama has that he won’t shift on?

* Protectionism sucks. You listening out there?

* Finally, a fun 1940 election ad.

Be good, folks!

End of the week for me.

* Same old Washington politics as usual:

In an interview with Fortune to be featured in the magazine’s upcoming issue, the presumptive Democratic nominee backed off his harshest attacks on the free trade agreement and indicated he didn’t want to unilaterally reopen negotiations on NAFTA.

“Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified,” he conceded, after I reminded him that he had called NAFTA “devastating” and “a big mistake,” despite nonpartisan studies concluding that the trade zone has had a mild, positive effect on the U.S. economy.

Does that mean his rhetoric was overheated and amplified? “Politicians are always guilty of that, and I don’t exempt myself,” he answered.

So let’s count the problems here:

a) Apparently, everything he said about NAFTA was, at worst, a lie and at best, “overheated and amplified.”
b) This “different politician” who’s not interested in the “same Washington politics” did the same pandering handwave to grab voters in the primary.
c) Getting votes is more important than trade diplomacy.

The last one is especially egregious, given the continued unsupported allegation that Bush has wrecked our diplomatic relationships. At what point can/should foriegn nations trust a President Obama on this issue? At what point should the voting public on any issue at this point, given that such a tenuous issue appears to have just been a stage play?

I’m sure this will get waved off as “just part of a campaign” or whatever. Unfortunately, even if you can wave it off internally, Obama has set a standard for himself. A standard he has failed to meet time and time again, and this is just the latest example.

* More change we can believe in: Obama apparently had a phone conversation with Iraq’s foriegn minister. Obama seemed pleased, pushing his troop withdrawal plan and saying no issues were raised in Iraqi quarters about it. Too bad Iraqi Foriegn Minister Hoshyar Zebari disagrees. According to the Washington Post Zebrari “told Mr. Obama that ‘Iraq is not an island.’ In other words, an American withdrawal that destabilized the country would also roil the region around it and embolden U.S. adversaries such as al-Qaeda and Iran. ‘We have a deadly enemy,’ Mr. Zebari said. ‘When he sees that you commit yourself to a certain timetable, he will use this to increase pressure and attacks, to make it look as though he is forcing you out. We have many actors who would love to take advantage of that opportunity.’”

Zebari is not against a gradual withdrawal - a policy currently in place by the current President, tenuously supported by the generals on the ground (who Obama claims he’d listen to), and likely to continue if McCain is elected. Which makes more sense, truly?

* Now, for actual change: McCain’s energy policy is calling for an end to the ban on offshore drilling, 45 new nuclear power plants, and more clean coal technology, among others. What makes this good? These are real changes from the current priorities, these are proven energy sources, and it’s a good, if imperfect, combination of working for the near future while sustainably preparing for the long term. Compare this with Obama’s push toward the “green” fad, with nameless “green energy sectors” and a significant amount of money being poured into unproven and often detrimental technologies. Even better, Obama is floatinf $150b toward those technologies, minimum - McCain’s plan does not need to spend much, if any, extra taxpayer money to get rolling. Go figure.

* On a sad energy note, apparently, the Bakken formation is a bit of a myth in terms of how much it holds. It still holds a very substantial amount of oil, which is somewhat being retrieved, but not as much as has been rumored.

* Meanwhile, while we discuss issues of energy and war, the House felt the need to ban interstate transport of monkeys. Thanks, guys. It’s not like our taxes are slated to go up in a couple years or anything.

* Oh, I shouldn’t say that’s the only stupid thing to occur yesterday: Maurice Hinkley, Massachusetts Democrat in the House, thinks the oil refineries should be nationalized. I’m not really interested in Hugo Chavez, buddy.

* Patrick Ruffini writes about the effect of the internet on the campaign for The Next Right. A pretty interesting writeup about the approaches of both campaigns.

* William Perry is part of Barack Obama’s National Security Group. This was his position on dealing with North Korea in 2006. Again, if Obama actually listened to the advisers he brought on, he might actually be a worthwhile candidate.

* What Obama’s tax policies mean for revenues. This doesn’t talk about the spending outlays, and kind of puts the lie to Obama’s desires to curb deficits.

* Conspiracy of the day: Obama’s positions on Iraq and his relationship with Tony rezko. Presented more out of amusement than importance.

* Finally, Cheetos porn. Not specifically unsafe for work, but unsafe enough given that it’s a man in his underwear simulating sexual acts with a giant Cheeto.

Congrats to the Celtics - I’ve not watched the NBA in any significant way since Reggie Lewis died, but if every NBA game was as fun and fast-paced as last night’s rout was, I’d watch more often. Absolutely dominating performance, quite fun.

* Another good point of evidence as to why Obama’s brand of “change” doesn’t quite hold up to scrutiny: the big swarm of the day is the tail end of Washington DC’s “Opportunity Scholarship” program, which is essentially a voucher program allowing a $7500 credit to follow a student into a private school. Now, as a matter of policy, you might be against the concept from the beginning - that’s all well and good. The evidence suggests, however, that the vouchers are working. The costs are down, and achievements on both ends in the DC schools are up. Now, would this trend across the nation? That I don’t know, and I’d be inclined to say “no,” given that I don’t think one size fits all education policies work within the United States demographics. However, this is where Obama fails at his “change” mantra - here’s a change a number of people believe in, that the evidence appears to believe in, and could act as a solid attempt at a change where things like No Child Left Behind has failed. Obama also sends his kids to private schools - he obviously perceives a benefit for himself on the matter (although he should not be held to any more scrutiny based on his personal decisions on the matter, and he’s not using vouchers to send his kids there). So why is he against this change? This would seem like a simple way to walk the walk, and actually do some good to boot.

* Another Haditha Marine case thrown out. This now makes 7 of 8 either thrown out or acquitted. Still no word from John Murtha or from Barack Obama that I know of.

* This is what’s hanging up the XM/Sirius merger. I’m not against any merger in principle, but there are some much more important mergers that go through quicker than this relatively unimportant one. Sheesh.

* A supermajority support offshore drilling for oil. Again - stonewalling on this issue 10 years ago is a contributor to the situation today. Imagine if we actually had extra production coming in right now. McCain smartly supports it.

* Perdue pays $800k for discriminatory hiring practices. What were the practices? Discrimination against non-Hispanic hirings.

* Real-world application of Barack Obama’s tax plan.

* Finally, enjoy this idiotic MoveOn ad:

It makes two political points, neither of which make any logical sense: McCain isn’t pushing for 100 year war, and no one’s calling for anything resembling a situation where the kid being pimped out would be forced into service. Has MoveOn become this irrelevant, and are you folks who are against McCain proud of this? I sure hope not.

‘Tis all.

There might be enough for two today, we’ll see…

* Reason provides a link dump of sorts regarding the minimum wage hike and its effects on things like summer jobs. It’s not entirely surprising, really.

* John Tierney at the New York Times discusses alternative options after the Republicans in Congress finally grew a backbone and stopped the cap-and-trade lunacy from becoming law. I’m not sure how palatable this can be to a wide range of points of view, but it’s worth noting if only to credit the outside-the-boxness of it all.

* Happy anniversary, proposition 13. I’m actually curious about what a lot of readers think of this sort of thing.

* Willisms on economic growth in “right to work” versus union states. Interesting, if not entirely predictable, results. As an aside, as much as I’m against forced unionization and such, “right to work” isn’t a term that really works well with me, and I only use it because I can’t figure out a better description.

* The sun rises, and the population doesn’t see the media as objective. Naw, really? Lots of interesting perception topics there.

* All over the place yesterday was Fred Hiatt’s piece on the investigation of statements made by the Bush administration in the run-up to Iraq. As most of us knew, “Bush lied” was nothing more than unsubstantiated hyperbole at best, and this essentially confirms it. I can’t wait to read the whole report.

* Kudos to both Obama and McCain for wanting to reach the most people possible with their eventual debates.

* An interesting piece on the rise of charter schools in post-Katrina New Orleans.

* Also at reason, a libertarian roundtable on global warming and what to do. I have a largish global warming post in my head that I’ll get out at some point in life.

* A very valid parallel between 2000 and 2008.

* This person wants to replace Sununu. And now you know why I want to volunteer for him.

That’s all for now. Depending on what comes around overnight, maybe another one in the afternoon will swing around.

It is too hot right now. I’m not going to do well this summer if I can’t handle heat in early June.

* I was amused by this: Kay Barnes is running for a Congressional seat in Missouri. One of her main platform pieces, as linked, is the price of gas. Why doesn’t she know the price of gas in her own district?

* Speaking of oil prices, George Will maps out how Congress has affected the prices. The ANWR point (where, if we drilled in 1995 like proposed, the oil would be flowing by now) is an especially good one. More on the basic voting records of the parties in Congress on energy issues, although the lack of nuclear discussion is disappointing.

* Part two of Cato’s series questioning the importance of global warming.

* Patterico on the unemployment hike and real-world application. I had to chuckle a little bit at the surprising jump in unemployment in May following the discussions last week - I’m interested in the longer-term trends on that one.

* There’s only one word for this sort of mentality: stunning.

* Finally, I really think the Malkin/Little Green Footballs area of the internet could disappear and no one would be worse for the wear. Patrick Ruffini discusses the anti-Jewish sentiment posted on one of the my.barackobama user sites that the campaign has since removed and scrubbed. That the campaign decided that a pseudo-networking site within its own website was a good idea is a fine discussion, but I also think it’s unfair to expect them to see everything that’s posted. Thus, when they’re given the heads-up about inappropriate content and they remove it, that’s a good thing. S’not hard, folks. Of all the things wrong with Barack Obama - and there are many - the exploitation of an otherwise apparently useful campaign feature shouldn’t be one of them.

Stay cool, or something.

In the event that I don’t get to mess with this between now and Wednesday morning, keep in mind that much of this was written on Monday evening, and mostly concerns links from the weekend. We will continue with regular link posts tomorrow.

* So Obama is 99.99% the nominee, even though superdelegates can change and Clinton hasn’t dropped. The more things change…. I will say this much - Obama losing South Dakota should be considered a bigger deal than it will be. He was up quite a bit only a couple weeks ago - where’s his momentum?

* The Next Right posted a venn diagram of GOP archetypes. It’s a pretty decent breakdown - if I were Republican, I’d likely place myself in the overlap between neo-libertarian and paleo-libertarian.

* I love things like this: photos of some of Earth’s last remaining uncontacted tribes. I’m constantly amazed that stuff like this exists - to think that, even with all the exploring and advances we have in the world, there are people we’ve never met and cultures we may never know. If anyone knows any books on this sort of thing, I’d love to read one.

* McCain proposes Parliament-style question time for the Senate. I’d watch that - I used to always tune in when they played it on TV here, I wonder if they still do…

* Okay, now Obama is considering an Iraq trip. Someone please defend this. Someone please explain what Obama WON’T fold on. Someone still explain why he has any appeal to anyone beside the D next to his name.

* MADD is insane. To summarize, a cop goes into a classroom, says a classmate was killed by a drunk driver. They’re then brought into an assemly and told that, no, they weren’t really killed, but every 15 minutes someone is. I’m sorry, that’s sick. Why do people think this is okay?

* The Cato blog discusses global warming’s impact on mortality. Interesting stuff here, even if you’re not one to like Cato.

* More from The Next Right, this time on McCain’s strong grassroots presence. It’s amazing how many McCain memes are floating around that simply aren’t true.

* The Washington Post puts it out there: The surge worked, so will Obama be changing his tune? My answer is probably not - the only principles he appears to hold are wrong ones.

* $225k in earmarks to Rev. Phleger while Obama was in the Illinois legislature. Same old politics, etc.

* From RedState, McCain mulled a one-term pledge. I think this would have been a bad move overall, but I would be more likely to vote for him if he made it, I won’t lie.

* Finally, happy anniversary to the Berlin Wall and its wife. No, really.

‘Tis all!

Still not feeling 100%, but better than yesterday, so let’s see…

* The “big news” was the John Edwards endorsement. I saw this coming if only because dirty populists need to stick together (I’m respectful to a fault toward a lot of ideologies that aren’t mine, but populism crosses a line for me - the rank dishonesty combined with policies that do the opposite of what’s intended is a bit much), but as a wider-scale issue, is an Edwards endorsement really going to help Obama in the general election at this stage? Does Edwards really bring anything to the table that would make the centrist voters that Obama needs give the Democratic ticket a second look? If there’s even a hint of Obama making Edwards the Attorney General, won’t that scare some people off? I don’t see the benefit past the mostly-already-decided Democratic primary, quite frankly.

* In the rare instance Obama does something right, I think it’s my duty to present it: Obama may relax the federal prosecution of medical marijuana, allowing the states more leeway. If we could get him on board for other issues of state’s rights, he might actually be worth someone’s time, but for the moment, let’s applaud him getting one thing right.

* Willisms on taxes and tax policy.

* RedState on Obama’s lack of momentum. He’s lost 7 of the last 10 primaries, and (I think) is likely to split the final ones. It’s an interesting side note to a primary that Obama otherwise has locked up, and the narrative is ultimately what will keep him from truly locking it up in the next few weeks, barring a Clinton withdrawal.

* Related from Rasmussen: nearly 30% of Democrats want to see Clinton run an independent campaign. She’s not that dumb, is she?

* Chicago overturns its foie gras ban. Good move.

* I’m kind of sad I slept through this yesterday: Manny being Manny, 2008 edition. Those of you not seeing Boston baseball on a regular basis are missing out on some really bizarre stuff, let me tell ya…

* The polar bear is set to be an endangered species. One of those bizarre things that the Bush administration has done, and I can’t for the life of me understand why. I’m not predicting economic apocalypse like many others are, but this is a really problematic listing for me, since the full population of bears has risen noticeably over the years. What’s the benefit?

* Proving that New Hampshire’s Democratic leadership does, in fact, wake up from its daze every so often, the income tax proposal they’ve been floating has been put on hold. This has been a bizarre run for a while, and I need to expand further on this when I have the time.

* More Obama mistakes: They apparently speak Arabic in Afghanistan, and we’ve diverted too many agricultural specialists in Iraq. I remember, either in Newsweek or Rolling Stone back during the 2000 election, a long article about Bush’s relative lack of knowledge of world leaders and things of that nature, complete with caricature of Bush at a desk with Condi Rice as the teacher. Somehow, I doubt the media will be printing anything significant like that as the Obama gaffes keep piling up. It’s a bit much to expect a domestic leader to have a strong grasp on all areas of international affairs during the campaign (although you’d think something like this he’d bone up on just a little more, given the Obama narrative), as they will learn on the job, but the treatment of candidates in this area is telling.

* I may have linked to the story earlier, but the dance ban at an Arizona restaurant has been lifted.

* Finally, Spider-Man’s greatest Bible stories.

Let’s see what I can’t bang out right now.

* I hope I can be rich enough to do stupid stuff like this someday.

* The news I forgot about is that the looming recession might not be that looming. Not great growth by any stretch, but considering we’ve been hearing about this “coming recession” for as many quarters as there hasn’t been a recession, there’s at least reason to be somewhat optimistic that we’re experiencing a slowdown rather than a full-blown recession. Talk about a wrench in the election rhetoric, though.

* More FCC idiocy.

* Really, one of the best sports stories I’ve read in a while: The story of the injured softball player’s home run, and the sportsmanship of the opponents. Really interesting.

* Jacob Sullum at Reason maps out my relative discomfort with the FLDS craziness.

* Congrats to Capcom’s inclusion in Guinness for holding the record for “Most Number of Games in a Series” with the Mega Man franchise. Further kudos for Capcom taking it in stride and being able to laugh at itself a bit.

* Organic food myths.

* Robert Samullsen at the Washington Post nails the oil issue.

* Yesterday was May Day, so it’s a good time to remember the victims.

* Should Seattle declare its independence?

That’s it for now.

I must have partied so hard on my birthday, I’m sick now - what with the dirt cake and the John Adams miniseries…

* The folks at Improv Everywhere are awesome - they turned a little league baseball game into a spectacle that was pretty great to see.

* It’s Mathmeticious.

* One thing I’ve loved over the years are the attempts by “historians” to try and contextualize the unfinished Bush Presidency in terms of historical ranking. Yet another survey has come out ranking Bush dead last, which is ridiculous on two fronts: one, the Presidency isn’t over and the full effects of his policies and actions have yet to fully be determined, and two, ranking him last means that “historians” think that some light pushing of Constitutional boundaries and the Iraq war trump the Trail of Tears, the Sedition Acts, World War I, the late 1930s court packing attempts, Japanese internment, the Teapot Dome, Watergate, Vietnam, etc etc. In terms of my favorite Presidencies, I’d place Bush in the bottom quarter, but that’s recognizing that there’s a lot we simply do not know. After all, do we rank Bush I higher or lower based on how we had to deal with Iraq following the first Gulf War? Does it look like that much of a victory now? It’s all ridiculous, and people who call themselves historians should absolutely know better.

* Jacob Sullum at Reason on the bill to allow FDA approval of cigarettes. All kinds of ridiculous.

* Barack Obama’s campaign has requested a delegate step aside for telling some black children to “quit playing in the tree like monkeys,” because of the racial (but probably unintended) connotation. So let’s see - calling black children monkeys in a rather innocent way with unfortunate connotations, bad. Blaming “Hollywood Jews” for bringing Brokeback Mountain and expanding homosexuality, okay.

* It’s been noted numerous times that Obama isn’t really practicing what he preaches regarding a different type of campaign: Twisting McCain’s “100 years in Iraq” comment as Obama has certainly isn’t representative of new politics, not to mention completely dishonest.

* We’re facing the largest tax increase since the 1940s. Will your candidate step up to the plate?

* A wonderful link dump citing facts about the French nuclear program. The United States has got to embrace this technology, period.

More later.

* Interesting possibilities out of the Dakotas, where a possibly massive oil field has been discovered. It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out - the high end estimation is at 500 billion barrels, and even if we place it at 200 billion (a little higher than the low end), if we were able to pump out our daily usage as of 2004 and keep it domestically, it would cover us for over 20 years.

This is ultimately why I get annoyed by the whole alternative energy/ANWR drilling issue - do we need to develop alternative fuels at some point? Absolutely. Not even the oil companies would doubt that, as they will invariably pioneer any fuel advances we see that make logical financial sense (the most major hold up in alternative fuels as is). Instead, the peak oil myth is allowed to take hold, we haven’t built a new refinery in my lifetime, and the drivel we get from Congress and the Democratic candidates for President is that we need to tax the oil companies that hold very little of the world’s oil more to, I dunno, teach them a lesson?

The truth of the matter is that the government - both on state and local levels - doesn’t really care one bit about the energy situation in the United States. They’re screwing the poor and middle class by artificially keeping prices high with a gas tax that, minimum, eats up $2.00 per tank of gas you fill right off the bat, they’re screwing us by not pushing for more refineries, for blocking drilling in places we can get oil easily, by blocking alternative energies that do work like nuclear power. Instead, we see charades like this. A complete waste of time, and ultimately deals with nothing.

Biofuels aren’t the answer, people - smart drilling, smart use of the resources available to us, and realistic policy rooted in what’s actually happening in the world rather than pessimistic predictions lacking strong evidence is is more helpful.

* I liked this TownHall column by Mary Katherine Ham profiling Bobby Jindal, the young governor of Louisiana. Hey, Bridget, any LA-based insight you can offer?

* Jane Fonda endorses Barack Obama. This is interesting more because of, again, the Wright issue. For one, Obama’s supporters have largely had to play the “but…” card - with Hagee, with Parsley, and other people who have endorsed McCain and have somewhat unsavory views. If these people are, in reality, worth talking about, the fact that Obama has a number of high-profile endorsements of people with various hatred for America - whether it be rhetorical like Wright or actual like Fonda - is not going to help Obama, whether the issue is fair or not. How exactly can Obama respond to the fact that he attracts people who aided in propaganda to an enemy that was holding his Presidential opponent hostage, exactly? God, this is gonna get messy.

* On the other hand, elections + the internet = awesome. Hillary Clinton decided to revisit the 3am phone call, this time going after McCain and the economy. Never mind the rhetorical…oddity that the President would be recieving phone calls at 3am about economic issues, but we’ll run with it. Apparently, only six hours later, McCain’s team had a response out. Absolutely incredible. Whether it will work is another thing - I much prefer McCain’s approach to the economic situation right now than Clinton or Obama’s, as I’ve read too many histories of the Great Depression over the years and fear any wide-scale tinkering during a downturn at this point - but you have to give the McCain people credit for a job well done on this one. If McCain loses this election, it won’t be due to lack of trying.

* Columbia isn’t pleased with Obama’s trade rhetoric. What was that about other countries under Bush again? At least he waited until he was in office to allegedly alienate them.

* A little late, but hey - top 100 April Fools Day hoaxes of all time.

* Will Obama’s position on abortion hurt him in November? An interesting read from Michael Gerson at the Washington Post.

* Posing as a professional football player for fun and profit. The odd story of Ed McCabe, who was not a member of the 1980 Raiders.

* Of all the legacies of the Clinton Presidency, it’s sad that free trade is the one the Democrats are most willing to abandon. Furthermore, of all the legacies of the JFK Presidency, it’s equally sad that the Democrats can’t seem to grasp his basics, either.

* Ilya Somin on what the Presidential candidates can do to protect property rights. In a post-Kelo government, this is a really important issue that’s not getting enough play.

* I’m still new enough to New Hampshire that I cannot be held responsible for the rank stupidity of this specific legislator. The sooner we can oust Shea-Porter, the better.

* The big story in some circles earlier this week was the breathless story from the UK about the amount of people in the United States on food stamps. Apparently, that’s supposed to mean something. Even if it did, there’s a good reason why that number is up - the 2002 Farm Bill greatly expanded those who can be covered by food stamps. That Farm Bill looks worse and worse every time I look at it.

* This story literally made me sick to my stomach. Wow.

* More evidence that this economic situation may be regional in nature.

* Congressional Quarterly’s Ground Game blog lays out a) a great example why the Richardson endorsement irked me, and b) why Clinton is just foolish at this point about it.

Whew.

I’m so behind. Or something.

* Budget situation in New Hampshire worse than feared. The worst part is that there’s no way in hell we’ll be able to vote Lynch out this year. Absolutely pathetic stuff here.

* Some crazy video from North Korea. Rarely do you get to see such first-hand images from there, really crazy stuff.

* Peter Bagge’s cartoons in Reason are always fun, but his illustrated log of his time during the New Hampshire primary is fun. Mostly non-political, it’s worth a read.

* Will Obama get in trouble for misstating charitable contributions on his tax returns? He apparently filed an amended return, but what does that one say? It’ll be interesting to see if there’s much follow up on this.

* Also via Reason, a question posed by the Christian Science Monitor regarding the Constitutionality of mandated health insurance. I think it’s a little cowardly that they consider single-payer capable of passing muster, but as for the topic at hand, it’s a neat argument I hadn’t thought of.

* Speaking of single-payer, more horror stories. At what point do these stop becoming the exception?

* The United States’s corporate tax rate just got more uncompetitive, as New Zealand drops its rate a bit. John McCain’s the only person even considering a corporate tax rate cut, one of the few things we really need from the government currently. Barack Obama wants to essentially charge corporations more. Does this make sense to you?

* Hillary Clinton - willing to force you to buy health insurance while ignoring the bills for the health insurance her campaign is responsible for. Class act.

* GraniteGrok offers a great statement on why conservatives should vote for McCain. It’s similar to other statements on the matter, but this one really resonated with me a bit.

* The top ten most unreasonable parking tickets.

* And the final tally on “Earth Hour?” No significant fall in power use.

* I’m interested in seeing how Obama rectifies the differences between his Illinois Senate position survey and today. Not that changing one’s mind is a bad thing, but an explanation of how one gets there would be nice.

* Speaking of, here’s more detail on a dishonest Obama ad. Populism kills.

* I’ve said it before that Rev. Wright is different than Rev. Hagee because Wright was involved by invitation with Obama’s political career and Hagee was not. Well, Barack Obama has his Hagee now, and it’ll be interesting to see how Obama’s supporters spin this one.

* Civil disobedience at its finest. Hell, it’s hardly disobedience as much as a protest of ridiculousness from a local high school who punished some students for having pictures with plastic cups on their Facebook pages, implying underage drinking. So some students get together, rent a root beer keg, and have a party. Cops show up, everyone blows 0.0s, and it gets on YouTube. Lovin’ it.

* FactCheck appears to side with me regarding Obama and lobbyist money. FactCheck is hardly a extreme right-wing source, for the record. The FactCheck.org piece is here.

* Christopher Hitchens savages Hillary Clinton. It’s sometimes hard to remember that Clinton is only marginally better than Obama in the grand scheme of things.

* Best hockey fight of recent memory. I grew up hating Patrick Roy, I’m glad his son is a tough guy.

* What every American should know about the Middle East. I didn’t know two of these things.

* Finally, a note about how corporations helped in the Katrina aftermath. An interesting thing to recall in a year of populist claptrap about corporate America during an election year.

* 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.

Gah!

* Michael Barone breaks down the superdelegate issue. I think it’s going to be impossible for the Democrats to finish up things before the convention - either they’re going to go with a known commodity in Clinton or an unknown in Obama, and if they’re leaning toward the unknown, they’re going to wait until he’s as fully vetted as possible - the Democrats can’t afford for Obama to have another Wright skeleton in his closet, and I’d imagine that fear is palpable, if not unspoken. That’s what the superdelegates are for, right? Don’t buy the Politico hype - the superdelegates have a role, and never underestimate the ability of the Democratic Party to shoot itself in the foot.

* QandO on why Glen Greenwald is a hack.

* Patterico had two excellent posts this weekend: First, a little straight talk on McCain and the whole Saddam/Al Queda thing that the Los Angeles Times decided to hammer home. Even I didn’t know of many of the quotes coming directly from the 9/11 Commission. Secondly, a great takedown of an Obama endorsement from a so-called Republican. Makes me wish I didn’t have such a visceral reaction to John McCain.

* Massachusetts schools aren’t failing, they’re simply “Commonwealth priorities.” I hate self-esteem sugarcoating.

* Many of you were right: Albany’s screwed. Spitzer’s replacement may have to step down for his own corruption issues, and the next guy in line is close to being indicted as well? Yikes.

* The Washington Post on a possible reality of an Obama presidency. I must say - calling your allies “so-called” won’t help matters, he’s right.

* My favorite story in ages: red light cameras are being shut down in some places because they’re too effective and end up being a drain on revenues as a result. Again: why do people wonder why I don’t trust law enforcement?

* Heavy but cool if you can parse it: a look at a possible fall in oil prices. Lots of stuff on petrodollars and investment and peak oil and on and on.

* Hugo Chavez moves to shut down the last remaining critical news outlet. That’s what you get when you try to stand up to a coked-up dictator.

* Bill Richardson endorsed Obama last week. I’m disappointed, but not shocked.

* A great story from inside the organ donation market. An interesting note from the piece - if every cadaver had its organs harvested and handed out, we still wouldn’t have enough. As creepy as it sounds, selling organs still seems like a better idea all around.

* GraniteGrok on how John Sununu’s challenger is completely stupid when it comes to oil prices. Shaheen is typical of the current Democratic/liberal mindset on economic issues right now - no forward thinking, and no clear progress on ideas that can solve the problems we’re facing.

* A pretty great story about how one of my favorite films, His Girl Friday, only found an audience after it slipped into the public domain. It’s somewhat presented as anti-copyright extension limits, and while I appreciate the public domain and the benefits it gives people on a whole, I’m also very pro-getting-people-compensated for what they do. It’s a very hard line to draw, especially in a situation that is inherently arbitrary, but I’m not convinced Disney should have to worry about losing Mickey Mouse while it’s still around, nor am I necessarily convinced that, say, Mark Twain’s great-great-grandkids are entitled to money for copies sold of Huckleberry Finn (note: I know Twain’s work is in the public domain).

* Are burglaries declining because of cheap imports?

Whew. That should do it for now.

Last week, I discussed some basics regarding Obama’s position on economics. Since then, he’s pushed out some more information on what he wants to do economically, and it ain’t pretty.

Let’s review really quick: right now, employment is what’s considered full - hovering around 5% unemployment, may leap up a point between now and the election, which is still decent. The manufacturing sector has been decimated in a number of areas, specifically the Midwest, and we’re hampered in part due to a xenophobic economic policy that has fear of foriegn made goods and irrational hatred of foriegn-based companies and outsourcing. Our corporate tax rate is uncompetitive with other comparable nations, and is only getting worse. To say that the economy is the top issue in this campaign is not a bad thing to say, really.

The first big pitch is that he’s looking to create two new major public works initiatives - one for “green energy,” one for “Infrastructure Reinforcement.” Let’s put one thing out of the way - the idea that the government can create jobs in this way was tried during the Great Depression: it didn’t work. The unemployment rate at the height of the problems in the 1930s was at 25%, and the result before the war issues began to ramp up for the United States was at 17%. Hardly a vast improvement for what it meant to be, and, more importantly, did nothing to help economic prospects and possibly aided in stalling them. Beyond that, what’s “Infrastructure Reinforcement” outside of the same sort of bogus earmark spending that voters overwhelmingly rejected in 2006 and are still considered a big issue today? Obama wants to spend $500b on infrastructure when it’s all said and done - what?! And so he wants a “Green energy sector,” whatever that means - will it mean more food for fuel that only ends up hurting the environment as well as the same poor and middle class he claims to be all about? (The answer, by the way, is yes). To be fair, Obama’s not shutting the door on nuclear power, but he’s hardly willing to pioneer an easy, long-term, viable pitch to our energy woes, either. Instead, it’s more of the same regulation that doesn’t work and ends up hurting the middle class where they can’t afford to be hurt - at least according to Obama’s narrative.

His other big platform piece is health care. His plan is dicey at this point - sometimes he wants universal, sometimes he doesn’t, he doesn’t like the Clinton plan, but his plan will insure all kids, etc. Two things we do know - it won’t work, because we we can’t get people to enroll in the plans provided to them already, and that it’ll cost a lot. Obama himself claimed last year that it would cost up to $65b a year, but if the Massachusetts funding gap is any indication, that number will go way higher.

Of course, that’s not the only way he plans to help people, you know. Tax credits! Increase the Earned Income Tax Credit, refundable credits for college students, savings credits, mortgage credits, tripling the EITC for middle class earners! Of course, Obama wants to close what he considers tax havens and increasing taxes on the top 1% of earners to help pay for these things. The problem, of course, is that the Bush tax cuts, in full, only accounted for roughly $110b/year, and closing the so-called loopholes isn’t going to bridge the gap in his spending proposals any further. You like the deficit spending now? Just wait!

Granted, we all need a tax cut - the taxes we pay right now don’t make sense, and the code is extremely complicated. But when the answer is to get those who create the jobs, invest in companies who create the jobs, and the companies that provide jobs, to pay more taxes, and to knock trade advances (and they are advances) such as NAFTA along the way, that’s not the route to a healthy economy. If you want more jobs, you don’t tell people “I want you to incorporate here, but I’m going to make you pay more money to the government to do it, and, oh, force employers to set up an IRA for you. Oh, and did I mention raising the Social Security cap, which will raise taxes quite a bit more for a number of people in that $100k-500k bracket who aren’t exactly rich, but, depending on where they live, aren’t poor either?

This is a huge error, and, more importantly, contrary to the meme Obama wants to push out there - this is typical Washington politics. This is the same type of politics we’ve seen for 70 years running now - government can solve the problem (even though they can’t) and the way to prosperity is by fleecing those who create it (it’s not). Politics as usual. I’d love to hear some defenses of this, because this seems epic in its proposal stage. He may not get much of it passed, but is that even worth a risk to possibly give that opportunity? I sure don’t think so.

Quickies:

* Solid gains in how homosexual/transgender kids are treated by their peers, contrary to what the Matthew Shepard Hate Crime Bill proponents would like to paint. We still have a ways to go, of course, but I liked reading this today.

* So, Senator Obama, when it turns out that one of your predictions turned out to be false, what do you do with the publication: Admit you were incorrect, or send it down the memory hole and hope no one notices? I’m sure not surprised by the answer.

* Interesting news story #1 this week is the Declaration of Independence by Kosovo. It’s causing Europe some minor fits, but I’m in favor of it - secession is often necessary, unfortunately.

* Interesting news story #2 is Fidel Castro stepping down. I don’t expect much change from Fidel to Raul, but even the outside chance that this can cause some reform in terms of normalizing relations and getting Cuba moved somewhere close to the 21st century is good enough for the moment.

* Interesting news story #3: Pakistan’s Musharrif appears to be on his way out. This is probably a more important story than Iraq in terms of the 2008 election, especially seeing as we have a candidate who isn’t all that interested in Pakistani autonomy attempting to run the show.

* Idiotic, unhelpful regulation at work.

* An interesting piece reprinted at Cato regarding global warming data and urban heat.

* The possibility of finding life on other planets in my lifetime may have gotten a step closer this week, as a study released suggests that there are a number of stars of similar stature to our own Sun, and that there could be a very large amount of Earth-like planets rotating them, or being formed. Cool stuff.

* Howard Kurtz contrasts the media treatment given to Hillary Clinton as opposed to Obama.

* One thing I’m not impressed by is the “Obama plagiarized Deval Patrick” smear attempt. When you base your campaign on ideas and platitudes, you’re going to sound like other people who do the same thing. I’m also not impressed at all by the “I did coke and had gay sex with Obama in 1999” smear that’s floating around the blogosphere right now - it’s completely ridiculous and ultimately a sickening prospect. What I am impressed by is that Obama only considers hanging a Che Guevara flag “inappropriate” while not demanding that his volunteers take it down. While I’m glad he’s said it’s inappropriate, you’d think he’d take the moment to focus on why it’s inappropriate as opposed to simply glossing over it and saying that it’s “offensive to Cuban-Americans.” I mean, he says that Guevara and he don’t share ideas, but his economic policy seems to be trying to send us in the same direction. It’ll be interesting to see if this story ever truly dies off.