The International House of Bacon

Let’s see what we can plow through.

* 100 pubs in Ireland, 7% of their total, have closed shop since Ireland’s smoking ban went into effect. The prediction is that 100 more will close in the next year. Take from that what you will.

* Jacob Sullum wrote an excellent piece for Reason about the Texas FLDS raid. Since going to print, however, more information has surfaced, such as the fact that only two children were indeed underage parents per Texas law. Those two being the impetus for taking 468 children from the compound because of alleged danger. My goodness, did the authorities screw up this one.

* How will Obama’s 16 month withdrawal plan work (assuming that’s his plan)? Soldiers in Iraq suggest it won’t.

* So IndyMac collapsed, in part because of a run prompted by Chuck Schumer’s commentary (although it likely would have collapsed anyway), and Fannie and Freddie Mac are in a little trouble. Interestingly, the problem some are describing on the left is not enough regulation on the latter companies, even though the Democrats stood in the way of those regulations. Regardless, I do find the regulation calls to be empty, considering how heavily regulated these companies are and how they’re not-so-subtly urged to lend to otherwise unworthy candidates. Part of capitalism is failure - it’s time we understand that a bit.

* The Manchester Union-Leader is spot-on: “MAYBE THE quickest way to lower oil and gas prices would be this: Immediately enroll every Democratic member of Congress in an entry-level economics class.” I wonder if the drilling situation will hurt Democratic chances in the House and Senate at all in November.

* Why is Obama’s Iraq op-ed so ridiculous? He was so dead wrong about the surge, and yet he tries to claim he was right anyway. There are more problems with the op-ed than just that, but it’s really the most glaring part. Ridiculous.

* Oddly enough, New Hampshire had straight ticket voting. I didn’t know that. It’s gone now, though - that should make things more interesting.

* Christianity Today has an election blog now, which is a great read. Here’s a post about a Congressional candidate requiring his volunteers to do 10% of their volunteering as community service. The blog is filled with a lot of these notes you wouldn’t hear about otherwise, so it’s a good pickup for your daily reading.

* Finally, 20 abandoned cities. I found this fascinating. This kangaroo didn’t.

Oh, also? Joss Whedon’s web musical, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog, posted its first act today. It’s absolutely worth your time - among others, it stars Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion.

Feels like Friday, and that’s alright by me.

* The Massachusetts cigarette tax went up by a dollar this week. Meanwhile, the “end the income tax” proposition made the ballot for 2008. It did surprisingly well last time it hit the ballot, so I’m interested to see how it works out.

* Okay, maybe we’re not going to unilaterally re-open NAFTA.

* Christopher Hitches got himself waterboarded for a piece in Vanity Fair. Very compelling read no matter which side of the discussion you’re on.

* Interestingly, that uber-annoying Katy Perry song, “I Kissed a Girl?” There’s a bit of hubbub about it, as Perry used to be a Christian music artist, but it never took off. That’s nearly as funny to me as Alanis Morissette’s rise to fame through You Can’t Do That on Television.

* Reason on fireworks. I live in a state where they’re legal, and rarely a night goes by during the summer that I don’t hear some going off during the summer.

* Finally, an amazingly detailed look at Game & Watch, the precursor to Game Boy. Talk about a memory trip.

That’s all I’ve got. Happy Fourth!

* Volokh on Kennedy v. Louisana is here. I’m not sure I disagree with the outcome on a Constitutional level, but I am a little tired of Anthony Kennedy right now. I shouldn’t be concerned about Heller today, right?

* As much as I love my newish home state, we still have some idiots running around.

* Jim Geraghy notes the dichotomy between Obama enjoying town hall meetings as a Senator, but not being in the mood for them against McCain. Again, 10 may be a bit much, but when he offers no reasonable alternative for negotiation…

* Radley Balko on mandatory menu labeling statutes. I’ve not been a fan of this sort of thing anyway, but he makes a series of great points that I hadn’t thought of.

* Some Obama supporters still don’t know where he stands on important issues. And by “supporters,” I mean “elected officials stumping for him who really have no excuse.”

* Obama’s rhetoric may result in less oil from Canada. Change we can believe in, repairing our diplomatic relationships.

* And finally, a fun parody of that silly MoveOn ad:

I’m nervous about DC v. Heller today - it should come down, and the common wisdom appears to be that Scalia is the guy for the opinion. For one, what should be a slam-dunk 9-0 obviously won’t be, and for two, if Kennedy’s the swing again, will he see something in Scalia’s opinion he doesn’t like and offer a concurrance, thus muddying the waters further? Today’s one of those days I wish I could stay home with CNN on all day.

Now that I’m somewhat back in real-time:

* I’m sorry, but this speech is ridiculous, and I’m almost prone to beg for 4 more years of weird-cadence-no-emotion Bush “speeches” than this sort of nonsense. I can’t remember the last time a speech made me physically angry, simply in terms of the overwhelming platitudes and the outright lies he’s willing to peddle just to get people hopped up - and they drink it up. Yeah, here’s a reality check, folks: no matter what happens this November, the oceans are just as likely to rise or fall, people will still be able to get decent jobs, people will still have health care. If anything, Obama’s platform will do more to stand in the way of those things long term than McCain or anyone else. But don’t let the facts get in the way of a little hope. Redstate broke parts down fairly clearly for more.

* Sweden to parents: you cannot name your child Elvis. Uh, what?

* In what could be the best thing to happen to Presidential elections in decades, McCain has challenged Obama to a series of town hall-style debates. You’d think this would be a great move for Obama, having to match wits in front of an audience with a man who’s apparently “lost his bearings.” But no - Obama doesn’t want that, he’s more interested in a Lincoln-Douglas format, where the debaters generally do not address each other’s points, instead one speaks for a specified time, the second for a longer time, and the third plays catch-up at the end. Why, exactly, would Obama favor the latter except to allow him to rant on and on without being questioned?

* Also from Redstate, the Democrats on Obama. McCain would be VERY smart to exploit this.

* It’s from the National Taxpayers Union, so get your eyerolling out of the way first and then see their report on what the candidates will cost. They’re not kind to anyone, but if the debt is your issue…

* Between Jeb Bradley and now John Steven, this may be the first election in my lifetime I’ve felt I’ve had an embarrassment of riches in regard to my electoral choices.

* From Reason, an article on how we treated the dot com crash compared to the mortgage.

* Finally, the Liberty City Police are facing some strict scrutiny.

Okay. Very few links today, just musings on what I’ve heard in the crossfire of the last few days and other meta notes. I essentially didn’t check my Google Reader regularly again until Saturday morning, so I missed about 800 possible links, and didn’t follow up on others - I’ll start catching up on links as the week progresses, and I have some other things mostly prewritten that’ll post at some point later this week. That doesn’t mean I’m completely unaware of what’s been happening, though.

* First, the DNC meeting was actually rather riveting to watch. I love this sort of thing, which was fascinating, and most of my thoughts may be completely off-base if Clinton in fact drops out later this week, but I have to say: a) that the DNC made rules that they have no way of adequately being able to force compliance on (re: primary dates) is ridiculous, and to penalize voters for those issues when the voters have even less say in it makes even less sense, b) Florida getting half-seating makes sense given the bylaws as I understand them, c) Barack Obama absolutely, unquestionably, unfairly benefited from the Michigan resolution. I understand why you assume that he would have gotten the remaining delegates, but that ornery Ickes guy got it right - the Democrats have a rule for uncommitted delegates already, and there was no logical reason to suspend those, especially when it hurts a candidate that much as a result. There was no good answer for Michigan, but I really think they picked the dumbest one.

I don’t think the DNC will remain fractured long-term. People are angry, but this isn’t THAT dramatic in the grand scheme of things - if you’re so aligned to a party as is, you’re looking at party over person already. I do think, however, this may be a harbinger of things to come in the general - Obama’s going to lose a bit of support in the general based on these shenanigans, and the Democrats have all but lost the “make every vote count” narrative that has worked generally well for them since the 2000 debacle. I’ve been wrong before, but that was some nasty stuff I saw there.

As for Clinton? I don’t think she’ll resign/concede, I think she’ll “suspend,” allowing for a challenge at the convention and the possibility of buyer’s remorse to set in on the Obama side while not having to work too hard. I hesitate to say that she was screwed by the system, since she ran a pretty horrid early campaign, but if the superdelegates are going to get behind Obama on this, I think that’s a mistake given the electoral maps. But hey - I’m jut a bystander.

* Scott McClellan’s book? Honestly, who cares? Really. At this point, assuming the leaking we hear is within context, we have a guy who stuck around for years doing something he was uncomfortable with for…what? And he was so comfortable being duplicitous in that role that we’re ready to trust him now because he’s saying things we want to hear? Okay. I mean, truly, I didn’t care about Feith’s book, I didn’t care about O’Neill’s book, and I don’t care about McClellan’s. Sadly, when the book proposal gets leaked, you know this is going to take up some cycles, and that’s just pathetic, and I don’t care any further.

* Obama left his church. We’re supposed to believe that you can’t ditch a crazy uncle, unless that crazy uncle possibly goes too far by calling you a politician, and maybe if that family decides to mock your Democratic opponent. I mean, I wonder if this helps him long term. I can’t imagine anything with this church can help him at this point. I dunno. It’s all so stupid and weird - to think that if he had left a year ago he could have avoided this should infuriate any Obama fan.

* I’m cautiously monitoring The Next Right. It’s a new conservative blogswarm created in part by Dale Franks (QandO) and Patrick Ruffini, and populated with mainpage guys who are conservative bloggers NOT in the Malkin/LGF mold. While I’m afraid of it turning into a conservative-style Daily Kos, I was cautiously optimistic enough to sign up for an account, and I’ll be crossposting New Hampshire information there unless it devolves into a morass of xenophobic lunacy.

* Speaking of xenophobic lunacy, Rachael Ray’s man hands are much more offensive than any scarf she may have been wearing. Enough already, please.

I meant to do some writing last night. But Grand Theft Auto IV took over my brain for a couple hours, so I get to rush this today. Whee.

* The best story of the day is the Texas court ruling which states that the government was wrong to remove the FLDS children from the Yearning for Zion compound. I’ve linked the Volokh post on it because it’s really the best overview out there (and at least 3 people linked me to various articles yesterday, so thanks), but the gist is that the religious beliefs alone are not evidence enough of a threat, and that there simply isn’t enough evidence to hold them for other perceived threats based on the evidence available. Like I said before - still more than a little uncomfortable with the goings-on there, but this is ultimately a good step in favor of religious freedom and a major slap in the face to government authorities.

* “We really in this last election, when I say we…the Democrats, I think pushed it as far as we can to the end of the fleet, didn’t say it, but we implied it. That if we won the Congressional elections, we could stop the war. Now anybody was a good student of Government would know that wasn’t true. But you know, the temptation to want to win back the Congress, we sort of stretched the facts…and people ate it up.” On one hand, we have a Democrat admitting that the Democrats stretched the truth about their war plans. On the other, we have Democrats who claim, with no supporting evidence, that the Bush administration stretched the truth about their war plans. Which one is going to get more play in the next 6 months?

* Barack Obama, the ball is now in your court.

* “I don’t think Obama really understands economics.” - Billionaire investor Carl Icahn saying what the rest of us who are paying attention already know.

* There are pros and cons to this bill, but the fact remains that neither side should be playing around with benefits for our troops, period. That there’s any significant debate on this is shameful on both sides.

* The stupid, stupid farm bill. And more.

* Something I learned yesterday: we have an import tariff on coat hangers. Aplia Econ blog maps out exactly why it’s stupid.

* Obama, JFK, and talks “without precondition”: What Obama should learn from history. One point they miss is where the US stood strategically following the Cuban Missile Crisis. While common wisdom tells us we had such wonderfully firm leadership, the fact remains that we ended up in a worse strategic defensive spot after the Crisis than we were before the missiles were being set up - once it was over, the Soviet Union had no new missile areas, and we lost some in Turkey. And that’s a victory?

* There’s been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth about the whole “Barack Obama’s 75k rally was that high only due to the free Decemberists show” thing the last few days (here’s a good link dump), especially since it’s come out that there are more than a few music/Obama rallies that have been held in recent months. First, let’s get some things straight - the Decemberists, while a great band, aren’t pulling 75k people on their own. I highly doubt they could - they got under 20k for the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and I think that’s their biggest show so far (and a few readers here can correct me, being much bigger Decemberists fans than I am). The fact remains that a) Portland is heavily liberal, and b) The Decemberists draw an indie rock crowd that’s overwhelmingly liberal. Even if the band drew an extra 30k to an Obama rally, the crowd would more than likely be extremely sympathetic to the Obama campaign already, and 45-55k is still an astounding number, even with Portland being pretty well known for its attendance at these sorts of rallies. The simple fact remains that the music world is overwhelmingly liberal - there are few artists (country excepted) that consider themselves conservative, and probably more than a few who do and won’t say anything about it. There may very well be a sour grapes argument to be made by the righties who are most upset about this, as it’s unlikely McCain (or any other conservative right now) could draw this kind of crowd with or without musical help that isn’t twangy. Yes, the media should be mentioning if Obama’s rallying with Stevie Wonder, but let’s not pretend it makes a difference.

* Finally, if you need a timesuck today, check out GraphJam. Conversely, if you’re in St. Paul, Minnesota, you may want to go to the Saints game for Larry Craig Bobblefoot Night.

Gotta try and make this quick.

* A relevant question for Barack Obama. Essentially, war he supports = have to win. War he doesn’t = screw it.

* Judges trump Iraq for Republican voters. If this continues to increase, this will only help the GOP in November. Might make a devastating GOP loss a more manageable one in Congress and keep McCain competitive.

* Kudlow on stocks and Obama. This could be coincidence, but it’s too interesting not to point out.

* On one hand, I’m glad that New Hampshire’s Governor Lynch is getting a credible opponent in Joe Kenney. On the other, if his plank is going to be composed more of social issues than the fact that the Democratic government here is overspending and overregulating us, I can’t get excited.

* Compare the Obama I highlighted this week with the Obama from 2004. Political expediency what?

* Did the New York Times threaten the McCain campaign?

* Chuckle at the Congressional Democrats completely screwing up the farm bill. If the Republicans were smart, they’re seize on this and vote it down just to make a point. But they’re not, so they won’t.

* Finally, a Runaways movie? Yes, please!

* Another story on the “people fleeing Massachusetts” trend.

* I’m glad Obama is willing to lie on the campaign trail so easily. No, Bush never pushed for privatization of Social Security, much to my chagrin, nor is anyone else with a chance in the race. But Obama has to play the faux populist, which requires dishonesty, so hey. Same old politics as usual, right?

* Oh, as if that’s the only dishonest thing out of his mouth that’s been put out there the last few days.

* Is Texas facing a freedom of religion situation if child protective services uses the FLDS association as a bargaining chip for the parents to get their children back?

* Finally, some entertainment fun: the trailer for Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, which looks fantastic, and McCain/Schrute 08!

Slow weekend, I suppose.

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.

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.

All while wondering whether Sufjan Stevens is cursing himself with knowing that there may be 10 more states for him to write about…

* Jeff Flake, Republican from Arizona, is one of my favorite Congressfolk. He proves it again this week by introducing the Remove Incentives to Produce Ethanol Act of 2008, which will essentially end the government ethanol handouts. This bill is such a good idea, I doubt it’ll get to the floor for a vote. After all, we know that the ethanol production isn’t working, so between this and Harry Reid’s proposal for $300b more for farms with ethanol as a point, which makes more sense?

* More polling problems for Obama. According to the Pew polling results, “[h]e is perceived as a liberal. He is perceived by many voters as not well grounded on foreign policy and not tough enough . . . and he has a potential problem, distinct from race, of being seen as an elitist, an intellectual.” When you have Obama facing an opponent who has centrist credentials, this is not a good formula for success.

* Of course, we are already seeing evidence of Obama’s race to the center now that the common wisdom is that he’s got the nomination locked up. The new tack is saying that McCain is lying when he says that Obama advocates meeting with folks such as Adminijad unconditionally. The problem is that Obama has said that. Multiple times, it appears. Same old Washington politics, folks.

* Yes, they are Crooks and Liars and we have the proof. Well, maybe not crooks, but definitely liars.

* Students suspended for not reciting the pledge of allegiance. Sigh.

* Considering how much Obama’s a fan of expanding government intervention in as many facets of American life as possible, how does one explain his support of ending federal oversight on union activity? How does this fit into Obama’s narrative, exactly?

* Patrick Ruffini on the left and the idiotic attacks they’re attempting to make on McCain. He points out that, contrary to popular belief in some areas of the left, Republicans most fed up with Bush tend to support McCain the strongest, he lists some examples of opposition, and he doesn’t even touch upon issues such as the Gang of 14. But, again, why should we be shocked by this?

* Is the New Hampshire school funding proposal unconstitutional? We’re talking the state Constitution, for the record.

* Hugo Chavez aiding a Colombian terror group. Naw, really?

* More judicial lunacy from Obama. And this guy taught Constitutional law?

* I was reminded of one of my favorite bizarre stories from college this weekend, about a teacher in 1966 and the “Third Wave,” his experiment to show how easy it was to get people caught up in the fervor of Nazi Germany. I’ve been familiar with his story about it for a long time, but this weekend was the first time I had read accounts from the students. There’s some creepy stuff in here if you look at it with a modern context, but it’s still a fascinating read no matter what.

* Obama also lacks the facts on taxes, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise. To go back to Clinton-era levels (as Obama advocates) would result in a much higher tax burden than what was experienced back in the 1990s.

I think that’s all for now.

* 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.

* Way to go Vermont for incentivising organ donation. A good start.

* A small piece on GraniteGrok about one of my favorite Senators, John Sununu. He’s currently trailing behind Shaheen by uncomfortable amounts, and his campaign seems incredibly slow to get rolling, considering that it’s May now and no one’s heard as much as a peep, but here goes nothing…

* Also, Sununu’s name coming up in the VP talks for McCain. He’d be a great choice if we didn’t need Sununu in the Senate.

* From Urgent Agenda, Jeff Greenfield’s piece on Orwell and elitism. Provides a nifty contrast to the current race.

* I love this concept.

* More problems for Obama: people aren’t buying is comments about Wright. This is at least more plausible than the “closet Muslim” smear that went out there, which is why Obama can’t ignore this. Although, it appears, he just might anyway.

* Remember, these are being touted as improvements to Canada’s health care. No thanks…

* Is the media really taking it easy on McCain? Power Line puts another notch in the no column, thanks to the New York Times.

That’s all for now…

All while dreaming of GTA IV and Mario Kart Wii…

* I’ve said all that needs to be aid about Wright at this point, I’m just glad the left is finally waking up on this. Kinda.

* Evidence that gas price predictions are completely useless.

* From the Club for Growth, the economics of panhandling.

* Barack Obama wants to raise capital gains taxes? Here’s a likely scenario if that occurs. And McCain is allegedly the one without economic knowledge?

* The Supreme Court upheld a voter ID requirement. I’m not against this, and I’m surprised that it was upheld, moreso that Stevens came on board with it. A voter ID is free in Indiana, which aids in the situation, but as long as the state doesn’t put any roadblocks up in terms of ability to get a voter ID (i.e., money or transportation issues), I see no reason why we shouldn’t require it.

* Unexpectedly funny shopping bags from Oddee, one of the more fun blogs out there.

* Free Tibet flags made in China. The jokes write themselves.

* I have to laugh at how organized the Ron Paul people are even at this stage of the game. This may be the bite in the rear end the GOP needs to rekindle its roots a bit.

* Child services removes kid from father’s custody after he mistakenly gives his son a Mike’s Hard Lemonade. I wish this was a joke, it’s completely pathetic.

* Harkening back to yesterday’s question, a Pennsylvania Wal-Mart cannot sell generic prescription drugs for less than $9 or it will violate anti-trust regulations. Who are they helping here, exactly?

* I’m not a fan of McCain’s health care plan. While it’s a step in the right direction, it’s not enough to really make a legitimate impact at this point. In situations where the health insurance is costing upwards of $1000/month combined employer/employee, a $5000 tax credit isn’t going to make a difference and isn’t going to change the employer/employee relationship. McCain’s been a pleasant surprise economically thus far, but he’s not quite there yet on health care.

* Is Jimmy Carter our worst ex-President? I’m starting to wonder.

* Finally, GraniteGrok on governmental disdain for citizen-approved budget votes. It’s a cool quirk of the New Hampshire system in some places that we get to vote on the budget - and thus make it easier to say “no!” to worthless increases. Naturally, town officials are appalled by the activity, and accuse the townspeople of not knowing what they’re doing. Classy.

* Radly Balko has started a series on the effect of Zero Tolerance regulations in our schools, and the one that got me today was the 8 year old who was suspended for sniffing a Sharpie. Why was he sniffing the Sharpie? “It smelled good.” Sigh.

* A new study suggests a link between drunk driving and smoking bans. Who knows how this will pan out under scrutiny remains to be seen, but it’s still pretty interesting. I have a feeling we won’t see MADD dive on this one.

* For all the crap I take from some of the blogs I read, Matthew Yglesias is one of the few liberal bloggers I can handle, but he’s being a bit of a dick here. The boiling down of Confederate pride to racism is a bit disingenuous to say the least, regardless of your positions on the Civil War. For all the discussion in this election about race and divisiveness, it’s interesting to see this sort of antiquated ignorance coming from the left.

* Is Obama being honest about the Iraq plans? If his own advisors don’t support a rapid withdrawal, and he still goes through with it, will the left criticize him for “ignoring experts?”

* The 9th Circuit Court does it again. How ridiculous is this?

* Here’s something interesting I didn’t know - John McCain has kids in the military, a 19 year old son who just got back from Iraq and a 21 year old son who could very well see service there following his graduation from the Naval Academy.

* Barack Obama is “not in favor of concealed weapons.” 39 states have laws allowing for it in various degrees. Will this disconnect hurt him if it gets publicized? I currently live in an open-carry state, I know I don’t feel less safe.

* Barack Obama is a smoker, but so what? I’m actually surprised more people haven’t pounded on that one. I’m more concerned about bills like this.

* A neat story about a Make-A-Wish child’s dream to join the military, and the Army helping make that happen. Really great story.

Today is slipping away from me…

* 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.

* Chrono Trigger a better investment than Apple. I was amused. And rightfully so, actually - Chrono Trigger is much better than anything Apple put out.

* I thought you couldn’t disown a crazy uncle?:

White House hopeful Barack Obama suggests he would have left his Chicago church had his longtime pastor, whose fiery anti-American comments about U.S. foreign policy and race relations threatened Obama’s campaign, not stepped down. “Had the reverend not retired, and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its flaws, then I wouldn’t have felt comfortable staying at the church.”

So after two weeks, the story doesn’t fade (and why should it when more comments such as the “bombs were built to kill blacks” and “garlic noses” come out), and Obama has to change his tune again. His numbers have gone to hell against McCain, the only polls he’s showing no harm on the Democratic side is a barely-reliable Gallup and a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll that has, for some points, a +/-7% margin of error in the oversampled groups that favor him the most. This is getting craaaazy.

* New Hampshire has its cake and eats it, too. Congrats to being one of the few states that refused to comply with Real ID and still got an “extension” from the Department of Homeland Security.

* What is with the Los Angeles Times? For those not aware, the Times published a story about Sean Combs (Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, etc) being linked to the Tupac Shakur murder. The problem? It was based entirely on fabricated documents. You’d think the media would learn after the Rather debacle in 2004.

* Obviously, they’re an advocacy group, but a study published at NORML notes that 70% of people who are getting treated for marijuana addiction do so through court-mandated programs. This means that we’re seeing people take treatment as opposed to prison time, and seeing the anti-legalization forces point to the treatment number as if it means something. Sigh. I made a prediction in 2000 that marijuana would be legal by 2010 - that ain’t happening.

* Also, The New York Times sorta gets RickRolled. Hoaxes are fun. Radly Balko linked both of these earlier, always worth a look.

* An interesting situation might be cropping up in Pennsylvania, where gun control may become an issue in the upcoming primary. Especially with the Supreme Court opinion on the Washington, DC gun ban coming up, this could cause some further pain to the eventual Democratic candidate against McCain if it comes up.

* Barack Obama’s doing some more detailing of his economic plan, and you know it’s rough when a guy who says he needs to learn more about economics has a much more sustainable plan than a guy who’s at least acting as if he has a clue. A capital gains tax hike (which would negatively impact investment, which is already hurting in the current climate), more regulation in banking (not that, you know, regulation isn’t part of what’s causing the credit crunch right now), and handouts for those who signed bad mortgages they can’t pay are all things that won’t address a single issue we’re facing, and could very well make things worse long term. This isn’t to say that Clinton or McCain are adequately addressing the problems in the economy right now (our uncompetitive corporate tax rates, the straight costs of doing business, etc), but Obama’s looking at sending us down a potentially hazardous path.

The speech in full is here, and the almost immediate praise of Alexander Hamilton should set off huge, huge warning flags to anyone with knowledge of Hamilton’s role in the formation of this country pre-Federalist papers. Economic populism like Obama’s spouting ends up benefiting no one except the person spouting it, and the worst economic situations that we’ve ended up in have, in part, stemmed from policies that grow from those areas. Obama should know better, but he, of course, does not. Example? “If we can extend a hand to banks on Wall Street, we can extend a hand to Americans who are struggling through no fault of their own,” was a line Obama put out there. Is he really taking the position that those who signed and initialed the 40-odd pages on their mortgages that they now can’t pay aren’t at fault? Really? Besides that, he’s on the opposite side of public opinion when it comes to the Dodd-style bailout program that Obama’s endorses, and that’s not even covering the fact that the rough draft we’re seeing probably won’t work. Mistake after mistake after mistake.

As a humorous aside, Obama went to a fundraising event, $1000 a plate, following the speech. Where was it held? Credit Suisse’s building, one of the top ten subprime lenders in the United States. Disconnect much?

* Children of Men as a television show? On one hand, the movie (which I thought was phenomenal) worked because it was a crazy ride through a bizarre setting, and didn’t let up. I’m not sure a serial television show will work quite the same way. On the other hand, one of the co-creators of the Battlestar Galactica reboot is behind it, so it’s likely worth a shot.

* More stupidity from Obama. The National Review notes the problems inherent in the IRS doing your taxes for you. I’ve probably had a more visceral negative reaction to this proposal than much else on Obama’s platform.

* Linked everywhere, a horrible b-movie waiting to happen comes to life in Mexico, as vigilantes storm cities and towns looking for emo kids to kill.

* The US media doesn’t have a huge presence in Iraq. Then we wonder why the negative stories are the ones that gain traction.

* What’s the proper response when people are leaving your state in part because of taxes and regulations? If the answer is “spend more money, and then propose to fill the gap via tax hikes and regulation,” your name must be Massachusetts. And Hillary Clinton wants to expand MassCare-style health planning nationwide?

* Finally, my new favorite blog? Photoshop Disasters, which is exactly what the name implies. My personal favorite examples? Lady Guenivere’s mutant hand and Imagine Watermarks.

Have a good weekend.

* 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-tha