March 29th 2008 - Today's Columns:

It's been a busy week and I'm just now getting a chance to do a bit of reading/blogging. My sincere and humble apologies for my lack of content this week.

John Hawkins : 10 More of the Greatest Pieces of Conservative Wisdom -

Robert D. Novak : Portman for VP -

Oliver North : 'Duh!' -

David Limbaugh : The 2008 Campaign Mess -

Charles Krauthammer : McCain's "Hundred Year War"? -

Linda Chavez : A Government Engineered Food Crisis -

Michael Barone : Missing a Generation -

Rich Lowry : Hillary Clinton's Strange Affiliation -

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann : Hillary's List of Lies -

George Will : Conservatives Really Are More Compassionate -

Hugh Hewitt : PBIP: The Approach and Outbreak of Polar Bear-Induced Paralysis -

Robert D. Novak : McCain's Payroll Prize -

Emmett Tyrrell : Hillary's Latest Whoppers -

Ann Coulter : Hillary: Swiftboated! -

Rich Galen : Hillary Mis-Remembers -

John Stossel : Law Can't Prevent Underage Sex -

Walter E. Williams : Is Obama Ready For America? -

Thomas Sowell : The Audacity of Rhetoric -

Jonah Goldberg : A Race Conversation? What Are You Talking About? -

Thomas Sowell : Bipartisan Primary Blues -

Rich Lowry : Return of Inflation? -

Robert D. Novak : Deepening Democratic Dilemma - According to Novak Democratic Superdelegates are raising their moistened fingers to the political winds to decide whom to anoint as the Presidential nominee. This tendency to follow rather than lead bodes well for those of us disinclined toward Democrats. If only we had a leader...

Rich Galen : When Campaigns Go Bad - Galen marks the turning point in the Obama campaign when it heads irretrievably south. It began with Obama's advisor telling the Canadians that his anti-NAFTA rhetoric was just that but fully turned the corner with the Rev. Wright.

A movie recommendation

I just finished watching Offside. It's a movie about the 2006 Iranian soccer team playing the Bahrainis to qualify for the World Cup. More importantly it's a window into the complexities of Iranian society. The story takes place in real time, more or less, during the game. It focuses on a group of women who tried to sneak into the game, women are not allowed at soccer games because there are a lot of men there who may shout obscenities in the passion of the game. The women are detained and spend most of their time taunting and ridiculing thier male guards who are merely carrying out orders and attempting to avoid punishment for screwing up.

This film is excellent because it captures so many aspects of the characters' attitudes and motivations and offers a glimpse into one of the world's most closed societies. As westerners we read about Iranian citizens and, speaking for myself, wonder why they don't band together and overthrow their oppressors. Support for the Mullahcracy is only skin deep and the population is brutally oppressed. There is wide-spread popular support for revolution. So why not?

We also wonder whether or not it will become necessary to bomb or even invade Iran to curtail their pursuit of nuclear weapons. When considering these possibilities one must also wonder what the reaction of the population will be. We have been attempting to support elements of the population who resist the ruling mullahs. But so far those efforts have not born fruit. It is widely believed however that if we are forced to bomb or invade, the population, currently on our side, will turn against us in defense of their homeland.

This film captures those attitudes beautifully. Throughout the film we see soccer fans on their way to, from, or at the game wearing Iranian flags and chanting/taunting slogans of support for their team specifically but their country generally. This is the moment of success for an oppressed people without much to believe in. Nationalism and pride go hand in hand. This is the moment when the people band together in support of a common value.

It may seem silly to some. I've known many people who don't understand the power of sports. I live in Columbus Ohio, home of the Ohio State University Buckeyes. It's a wonderful place to live. But when I first moved here, after decades of drifting without a place to call home, I too was cynical about the Buckeye Fever that sweeps the land every autumn. I like to think of myself as above such petty interests and as an educated, intelligent, deep-thinking, erudite muckety-muck. But after a couple of years I began to see what it really means.

Sports are nothing more than a friendly form of nationalism. A sports team is a common point of focus and value for a community. It gives us a commonality and a singularity that is seldom achieved in any other venue and certainly not on such a wide scale. It brings a whole community together, gives strangers a common interest upon which to build a friendship. And having been through both a successful and an unsuccessful National Championship with my team in the last few years, I know the sheer joy and heartache that accompany the oneness with one's team. When the Buckeyes won the Championship in 2003, my voice was hoarse for 2 weeks afterward from screaming with every random person in the city. Horns were honking, people were cheering. It was an amazing moment to experience. Having years before learned to embrace Buckeye Fever, this crowning achievement gave me a brief moment of truly feeling connected to my city, my community, and my neighbors.

But there is a downside to this unbridled followership. It is not just pride that goes hand in hand with nationalism. All strong emotions do. Unfortunately these include fear, suspicion, and hatred. These are the classic mechanisms employed and exploited by dictators to keep their people from rising up in protest. And these natural human tendencies must be considered when fashioning U.S. policy regarding Iranian acquisition of nuclear arms.

If we were to bomb or invade Iran we would become the target of fear, suspicion, and hatred. The ruling mullahs would utilize their state-controlled media to paint us as the evil conquerors. The population would become hardened against us instead of what they should be, our natural ally.

The movie displays the nationalism of the people as they root for their team and their country. But is also discloses a disdain for their rulers. The women who are captured by soldiers at the soccer stadium openly taunt their captors. They repeatedly question the rationalization for barring them from attendance. But they also bond with the soldiers. They understand that the soldiers are forced into service. The soldiers' primary goal is to avoid punishment, especially that of extended military service. There is a wealth of knowledge here.

Iran is a proud nation, and for good reason. The last 30 years or so not withstanding, Iran has a glorious history of accomplishment. But her current rulers and their aims cannot be allowed to stand. The lives of millions are on the line and an apocalyptic madman cannot be permitted to acquire the weapons to make his visions a reality. It must become U.S. policy to mobilize all departments of the federal government, in conjunction with whatever foreign and domestic groups available, to assist the people of Iran to overthrow their government regain their pride of accomplishment. If we attempt to do it for them we will ossify their opposition to us. If we do nothing millions of Israelis will die as well as millions more people throughout the region in the inevitable wars to follow.

We have attempted to foment revolution within Iran for years. But we have not yet organized a concerted effort of all assets at our disposal. We have not yet rallied supporters to the cause. We have not yet convinced dissenters within the agencies of the federal government (namely State and CIA) to join the team. For too many years career government beaureucrats have been thwarting Bushes foreign and domestic policies. For a myriad of reasons, he has not attempted to clean house of those who undermine him. But this issue is too important. With the possibility of a squishy Democrat in the Oval Office next year, there is no more time for dilly-dally. The Iranian issue must be handled now. And it must be handled effectively.

March 23rd 2008 - Today's Columns:

George Will : Americans Get The Judiciary We Pay For - Will takes up an important issue and places it in historical perspective. "The denial of annual increases, (Chief Justice John) Roberts wrote, 'has left federal trial judges -- the backbone of our system of justice -- earning about the same as (and in some cases less than) first-year lawyers at firms in major cities, where many of the judges are located.'" Along this line of argument I've been advocating for years that we pay Congress criters $5 million a year each. The total cost would be $2.675 billion or less than 1% of the 2008 federal budget. But it would surely invite much greater competition for the jobs and bring talent of a much higher caliber.

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann : Heavy Hitter? Not Hillary - Hillary's appointment schedule from the time of her husband's administration has been released and it turns out that she may have stretched the truth just a bit in her claims of being an administration mover and shaker. I for one am shocked. Shocked!

Robert D. Novak : McCain's Mistake -

• McCain made a mistake by going to Iraq, not just his widely publicized mistake of al Qaida being trained in Iran.
• The Clinton campaign says that Obama is unvetted and unable to stand up to the "Republican Attack Machine." Presumably that's an arm of the "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy."
• McCain thumbs his nose at conservatives by selecting Bobbie Greene Kilberg to run the convention in Minneapolis.
• Conservative activists are pushing Bobby Jindal for VP. I think we all know what McCain thinks of conservative activists. I suspect he'll pick Susan Collins, or better yet, I think Tom Daschle is available.
• In an odd bit of reporting Novak points to poll results to suggest that the voting public does not support pork spending. "40 percent of a national sample of swing voters are opposed to higher taxes and prefer 'fewer earmarks and no more bridges to nowhere.' " I'm no mathematician but I do believe 40% is less than a majority.

Jonah Goldberg : Mamet vs. the Greek Chorus - An interesting piece on the "open-minded" left. Playwright David Mamet has reconsidered his liberal ideology and begun to accept conservative notions of free markets. As a result, theater critics are beginning to question his work.

Michael Barone : Will Wright Damage Obama's Millennial Support? - No one knows more about electoral politics than Barone, and his observations are worth noting. His analysis is spot-on with respect to Millennials (the generation born after 1980) and their news consumption habits.

Three Cheers for FDR!

On this day, March 22nd, 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the Cullen-Harrison Act which legalized the sale and possession of beer and wine. It took another 9 months to adopt the 21st Amendment to repeal the 18th Amendment and end prohibition.

Clearly 1919 and 1920 were bad years for amending the Constitution. I think this anniversary affords an opportunity to take a critical look at the 19th Amendment with an eye toward repeal.

Are you with me brothers?

March 21st 2008 - Today's Columns:

Charles Krauthammer : Obama's Speech Leaves a Few Question Marks - "It's the Jesse Jackson politics of racial grievance, expressed in Ivy League diction and Harvard Law nuance. That's why the speech made so many liberal commentators swoon: It bathed them in racial guilt, while flattering their intellectual pretensions."

Oliver North : Iraq: The Real Story - Ollie's first paragraph says it all:

Five years ago this week, 170,000 American and coalition soldiers, sailors,
airmen, guardsmen and Marines launched Operation Iraqi Freedom. When they
commenced their attack, they were outnumbered nearly three to one by Saddam
Hussein's military, yet it took U.S. troops just three weeks to liberate
Baghdad. No military force in history has accomplished that much so fast with so
few casualties.

Rich Lowry : Obama's Speech -- A Glorious Failure - As the headline of his article would imply, Lowry didn't much care for Obama's big speech either.

Ann Coulter : THROW GRANDMA UNDER THE BUS - Rather than just gratuitously whipping Obama (maybe the wrong phrase to use), Coulter actually makes a good point:

As an authentic post-racial American, I will not patronize blacks by pretending
Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is anything other than a raving racist
loon

She also mentions a comment by Rev. Wright that I had heard but not really paid attention to. That is his reference to Condoleezza Rice as "Condoskeezaa Rice." This is one of the most annoying aspects of the black left, the tendency to view any accomplished black person on the right as an Uncle Tom and to denigrate them. All that accomplishes is to make clear that their goal has less to do with uplifting blacks than left-wing politics. And I will always defend Condoleezza Rice. [More unsolicited advice for the McCain campaign: Condi would make a fantastic VP nominee.]

Patrick Buchanan : A Brief for Whitey - I cringed when I saw this title and byline. But my curiosity got the best of me and I read it anyway. It must be hard for Pat to type with that sheet on all the time. But I do like his last line. With regard to Obama's call for a nationwide racial dialogue, Buchanan says "Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago."

March 19th 2008 - Today's Columns:

Thomas Sowell : Obama's Speech - Sowell details the lack of credibility in Obama's position that he was unaware of the inflammatory, anti-American, and racist rantings of his pastor. He likens Obama to a con man who doesn't need to fool the skeptic but only to allow the clueless to continue to believe what they want to believe.

John Stossel : Politicians and Sex - This is Stossel's second piece defending convicted sex offenders. It seems so odd just to type those words. I guess that's why our sex laws are so, pardon the pun, screwy. And also why no politician will ever try to fix them.

Walter E. Williams : Peace-loving Muslims - Williams makes the argument that it is irrelevant whether or not most Muslims are peace-loving individuals or militant extremists. What matters is who is calling the shots and whether or not the peace-loving people are exposing and condemning the militants or harboring them implicitly or explicitly.

Michelle Malkin : Say Goodbye to the Glowbama Mystique - Malkin opines that the bloom is now off the Obama rose and, presumably, the media will begin to look more critically at him. I don't know that this is the case. I find Sowell's argument more compelling. Those who want to believe the Obama mystique, the media, will have heard what they needed to hear yesterday.

Vocabulary time

I thought, given Obama's current troubles, that it might be a good time to publish the definition of Petard:

pe·tard /pɪˈtɑrd/ –noun
1. an explosive device formerly used in warfare to blow in a door or gate, form a breach in a wall, etc.

2. a kind of firecracker.

3. (initial capital letter) Also called Flying Dustbin. a British spigot mortar of World War II that fired a 40-pound (18 kg) finned bomb, designed to destroy pillboxes and other concrete obstacles. —Idiom

4. hoist by or with one's own petard, hurt, ruined, or destroyed by the very device or plot one had intended for another.

Obama's race speech

I'm watching Obama's speech from earlier today right now via YouTube on his web site. In his effort to untangle himself from his racist pastor of 20 years, Obama ties his current need to distance himself from his bat-caca crazy, whitey-hatin' minister to his campaign theme of unity.

As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

I suspect I'll hear more along these lines as I continue to listen to him drone on endlessly about nothing. But let's focus on the above quote for a moment. Here are the "monumental" problems he lists:

1. two wars
2. a terrorist threat
3. a falling economy
4. a chronic health care crisis
5. potentially devastating climate change

Number one is bogus. We are fighting one war. Not only that but Obama has repeatedly called for surrender on the primary front in that war, Iraq. His idea of coming together is to lose?

Number two is the reason why we have number one. Again though, Obama and his allies in the Democratic Party have made every conceivable attempt to thwart our efforts to fight the terrorist threat from actively blocking and/or undermining the war effort itself, intelligence gathering, detaining terrorists caught on the battlefield, funding the troops, tying the Army's hands with rules for deployment, and, as mentioned above, advocating surrender. There are countless other examples that could be listed here.

Number three may be a bit of an overstatement but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. However, his proposals to increase taxes on income, investment, capital gains, death, marriage, gas, and every other facet of the economy, would utterly guarantee a recession and a major and lengthy economic slowdown. Add to that his proposals to limit carbon emissions and we're looking at the next depression. We used to worry about being overrun and forced to speak Russian. If Obama is elected, we better start learning Chinese.

Numbers four and five of Obama's "monumental" crisis I simply disagree with. There is no health care crisis. But there will be if we allow our nation's health care system to be run with the same brutal efficiency with which we all get our driver's licenses now. And the great global warming swindle has been re-branded as "climate change" since the planet has started cooling again but it is still the same game. The problem all along was never global warming but too much prosperity and freedom. And the answer remains the same; more government intervention, control, and power.

It appears that the only thing we have to fear, is liberal guilt.

Update: Quoth Obama:

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

So if we don't forgive Obama's 20-year-long bad judgement regarding his crazy bigoted preacher, we're retreating into our corners? Isn't that boxing terminology for calling it a draw? I say "no sir". I wish to continue this fight. Also, isn't this speech your attempt to walk away from the issue? Furthermore, what's this crap about health care, education and jobs? None of the above should be the role of the government. I'm starting to hate this guy almost as much as Reverend Wright hates the Joooos.

Update: Un-freaking-believable:

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments - meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today's urban and rural communities.

In the middle of the housing bubble bursting, is he really attempting to claim that black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages? (Let's leave aside the fact that FHA mortgages are for first-time home buyers who by definition are not homeowners already, be they black or white.) The primary cause of the housing bubble burst is the government intervention in the mortgage industry. It was said that mortgage companies were red-lining (not giving loans to people in black neighborhoods). The mortgage companies argued that it had nothing to do with skin color but with the applicant's ability and likeliness to repay the loan. The government didn't like the results of the racial disparity caused by giving loans to those deemed likely to repay. So the government stepped in and forced the mortgage companies to grant loans to people who could not repay. Shockingly, those people defaulted on their loans. This caused a tremendous amount of personal trouble for those involved but it also created a glut of inventory on the housing market. As we all know from Econ 101, an increase in supply causes a decrease in prices in the market. This caused everyone's home values to drop. And since most people in this country were up to and over their eyeballs in debt, they suddenly found themselves in a position where there home was worth less than what they owed.

There is plenty of blame to go around for the current state of the housing market but mortgage company red-lining is is nothing more than a red herring. And regardless it is a terrible idea for Obama to bring up the subject considering it has been the left in this country that has been largely responsible for the policies that have led to the mess the housing market is now in.

Update: "This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit." Would you feel better if what they got was more than a profit?

Update: Having watched the whole speech now I must say it was a fabulous one. If I were a vapid, uneducated, self-righteous, indignant moron, I would have been moved to fainting spells. Obama's campaign in general and this speech in particular are further proof of Mencken's wisdom, "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." Except the American people themselves perhaps.

My question is this, what does all this talk about race have to do with the issue at hand? Obama has been criticized (rightly in my opinion) for his judgement in choosing Reverend Wright as his spiritual leader for 20 years. Wright's comments have been widely quoted and are unquestionable loony and racist. It is not possible or credible that Obama did not know Wright was a nutbag and/or harbored nutbag views. If he didn't know it is because Obama didn't consider those views so odd or out of the mainstream. If he did (and this is my opinion) he accepted them in order to gain cred amongst the black voters in Chicago. That's called pandering. All politicians do it to some degree or another. But to then campaign on unity and transcending race is galling.

It appears to me that the chickens that have come home to roost in this episode are those of racial politics. The reason we have not previously seen any credible national black politicians and very few statewide black politicians is that blacks on the left too often rise up the ranks out of black districts. They begin their careers as "black" candidates appealing exclusively to black constituents with promises of handouts and by appealing to bigotry; whitey is keeping you down. It is not difficult to understand why those messages lack broad-based support.

When a politician exploits racial division in order to win a congressional seat, city commissionership, mayorship, etc., it becomes near impossible to later run for an office that requires the backing of the non-black population. You cannot run as the Don't Trust Whitey candidate and then ask for whitey's vote.

Obama takes aim at his own grandmother

In an effort to wash the ickyness off, Obama today threw his own grandmother under the campaign bus:

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more
disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a
woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she
loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black
men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has
uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

Before today I thought Obama to be, to borrow a phrase, an affable dunce. He seemed nice and genuine. But this is dispicable.

March 18th 2008 - Today's Columns:

Rich Lowry : The Dishonesty of Hope - "The Rev. Wright drives a wedge into the central contradiction of Obama's campaign -- an orthodox liberal politician who rose to prominence in a left-wing milieu in Chicago and has never broken with his party on anything of consequence is campaigning on unifying the country. There is nothing particularly unifying about Obama's past and his voting record." True dat.

Thomas Sowell : Race and Politics - It is remarkable that Sowell wrote this piece before Obama gave his race speech today. But he is absolutely correct in calling Obama onto the carpet in exactly the same way any white person should be for being a demagogue exposed as a phony.

Robert D. Novak : Democratic Racial Divide - The storm is gathering for the Democratic Party breakup over race. Will Obama's speech today help to squelch the fall he's been in since the media started examining his pastor? Is the bloom sufficiently off the Obama rose for the media to now look critically at him in earnest? Will it discover even more to make him less palatable to the Superdelegates?

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann : Hillary Sends Ferraro After the Race Card - Morris paints Ferraro's remarks about Obama as overly simplistic with reasoning that is itself overly simplistic. He says "Hillary is trying, through her surrogate Ferraro, to make it appear that all Obama had to do was show up, show some skin and win." But that isn't at all what Ferraro said. Obviously Obama is a gifted politician who has connected with a very large number of people. He clearly wouldn't be where he is without his charisma, organization, intelligence, and political positioning. But to claim that his skin color is not a factor would be wrong as well. She didn't claim that it was only his skin color that got him where he is. But he wouldn't be here without it. Many in this country, myself included, are eager to elect a black President. While I don't want it to be Obama (Condi please) I do think it would go a long way toward healing deep racial divides.

How to make a million dollars

First, have a semi-successful brewery.

Second, bring back pull tabs.

Third, buy a big vault in which you can swim in your money like that cartoon duck.

St. Patrick's Day Parade

Today I marched in the Dublin (Ohio) St. Patrick's Day Parade with the Steve Stivers for Congress campaign. My dog Frisco was the hit of the parade though:

How could you not vote for a candidate who has a dog in a t-shirt on his team?

Here's Frisco with the future Congressman.

March 14th 2008 - Today's Columns:

Charles Krauthammer : An Election About Identity, Not Policy - "The optimist will say that when this is over, we will look back on the Clinton-Obama contest, and its looming ugly endgame, as the low point of identity politics, and the beginning of a turning away. The pessimist will just vote Republican."

Jonah Goldberg : A Road Map to Democratic Disaster - Goldberg delights in the oncoming train wreck that is the Democratic nominating process. While I share his glee, counting on the other side to lose is not the same as winning. McCain is still a bag of douche.

Linda Chavez : Iraq War Could Help GOP Win in November - Chavez examines some poll numbers which point to the war in Iraq being less significant in the election than previously thought.

Rich Lowry : Bonfire of the Democrats - Lowry analyses the petard-hoisters on the left. "Even as victims, women are second-class citizens." Live by identity politics, die by identity politics.

George Will : A "Magnificent Catastrophe" - Evidently Will believes I will vote for Obama or Hillary if only he or she chooses our Governor Ted Strickland as running mate. While that seems silly, I would almost certainly vote for McCain if he chose Ken Blackwell as his running mate.

John Stossel : Beware Candidates' Promises - Stossel takes up the unpopular cause of men convicted of trivial sex offenses. In this piece he details the story of a high school senior who has consensual sex with his 15-year old freshman girlfriend and ends up on a sex offender list for life.

Walter E. Williams : Big Corn and Ethanol Hoax - Far more scrutiny needs to be paid to the ethanol hoax and I thank Walter Williams for his contribution here. "The ethanol hoax is a good example of a problem economists refer to as narrow, well-defined benefits versus widely dispersed costs." I think that if the general public understood the scope of this scam they would be picking up their pitchforks and torches.

Thomas Sowell : "Non-Judgmental" Nonsense - Sowell criticizes Spitzer for his moral failings and hubris which began well before his dalliances with prostitutes. He also criticizes those who would forgive moral failings as "personal" and not related to public life.

Jonah Goldberg : The Left's Patriotism Gap - Goldberg takes a critical look at "unity" vs. patriotism.

Better that our politics be an argument about why and how we should love our country, not about whether some do and some don't.

Thomas Sowell : The Costs of Crime - So much of the world makes sense when seen through the eyes of economics. Sowell is a master of it. Here he examines the fallacy of those who lament that "Crime Keeps on Falling, But Prisons Keep on Filling."

Rich Lowry : She Won't Stop - Finally, a pundit who gets it. So many have been saying that Hillary cannot win the nomination at this point. They base that analysis on math, rules, customs, and mores. This is Hillary Clinton for Chrissake! She will not stop, as Lowry points out. She will fight dirty and relentlessly. The only way the Democratic nomination does not end in disaster for the Democrats is if Obama joins Hillary on the ticket as the number 2. Hillary could, at this point, unify her party by bowing out of the race and throwing her support behind Obama. Assuming Saddam Hussein will be lacing up his figure skates in Hades before that happens, here are the other possibilities:

Hillary and Obama continue to slug it out in Pennsylvania and the remaining states and go into the convention in essentially the same tie they are in now. At this point the Superdelegates will decide it. Either way the Dems lose. If they decide in favor of Obama Hillary will contest the vote and insist on seating the delegates from Michigan and Florida. Even if MI and FL figure out a way to revote and send delegates to the convention, there is ample fodder for lawsuits. All this fighting will put all the dirt out on display making it easier for McCain to defeat Obama in November.

Or, the Superdelegates may decide for Hillary because either they think she'd be a better match-up against McCain or because they think this will avoid an ugly fight. Obama, who still has a future in Democratic politics, will likely let his surrogates do the fighting while he takes the high road. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson will "holla" like they've never "holla'd" before. The black vote will split in the general and Hillary will lose in the biggest landslide since Mondale.

Ann Coulter : Whoreable Behavior - Coulter exhibits a bit of Schadenfreude at the fall of Spitzer. Were I the headline writer it would be "Prick gets Pricked by Prick".

March 6th 2008 - Today's Columns:

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann : Obama Better Battle Back Before It's Too Late - Morris is the only pundit I'm seeing who seems to truly understand Hillary. Her tenacity and capacity for evil cannot be overestimated. If Obama thinks "Hope" will win him the White House he is truly a dreamer.

George Will : FDR's Young Admirer - Will pens a wandering critique of Castro's Cuba. Some times Will is incredibly brilliant. Other times he is just incredibly hard to read. This is the latter.

Ann Coulter : Hillary: Stand By Some Other Man - Coulter, a Hillary supporter like me, hilariously urges Hillary to divorce Bill.

The percentage of registered voters who would rather disembowel themselves with a wooden spoon than vote for Hillary has just slipped below the magical 50 percent mark. We're surging, Hillary! If you want to be even more likable, you should go on "The View." Next to those four harpies, you seem almost agreeable.

Emmett Tyrrell : McCain Again - An interesting quote:

In the autumn of 2006 when I crashed Bill Clinton's 60th birthday party in Toronto, I managed to be seated with his traveling aides and a few of his financial supporters. On that night, I picked up two pieces of intelligence that are pertinent in light of McCain's almost certain nomination. She was uncertain about running for president in 2008 and would wait to see how the off-year elections went in 2006. More interestingly, the Republican she most feared was McCain.

How to trap a P.I.A.P.S.

Clearly my strategery and tactics are effective. And riding on my wave of success, I now offer more unsolicited advice to the McCain campaign.

When McCain faces Hillary in a debate this fall (if?), he should lay the following trap:

Hillary: [Slings some mud in what is supposed to sound like an off-the-cuff comment but actually sounds rehearsed and focus-grouped.]

McCain: "I don't want to respond to mud-slinging. There's an old saying in the south (appeals to people who actually vote Republican) that whenever you get into a wrestling match with a pig you never win. Because you both end up covered in mud, but the pig likes it."

Hillary: "It's interesting, I think, that my opponent would attempt to take the high road while, in essence, calling me a pig."

McCain: "Well if the pantsuit fits..."

Audience: [uproarious laughter]

March 5th 2008 - Today's Columns:

John Stossel : Influence-Peddling - Stossel spits in the wind in his usual and charming way about "the problem of concentrated benefits and dispersed costs." By that I mean he's right, he makes a tremendous amount of sense, he argues convincingly using relevant real-world examples, and yet his position has about as much chance of implementation as Al Gore's 10,000 sq. ft. mansion being powered by solar panels. For instance he argues, "Only when we eliminate the state's ability to meddle in business will business will [sic] stop meddling in government." Oh, is that all it takes?

Rich Galen : John, John, He's Our Man - Galen focuses on the short-term of Hillary and Obama battling it out for the nomination while McCain can "spend the next eight months building (and paying for) a well-oiled General election machine." So many pundits are focused on the next battle, Pennsylvania, that they're not realizing that neither Hillary nor Obama can clinch the nomination at this point. There simply aren't enough delegates remaining for one to knock the other out of contention. As Rush said on his program today, this thing will go on until June 7th in Puerto Rico and it won't be decided then either. After yesterday's performance Hillary has enough street cred to stay in this to the bitter end. And it will be bitter. Were I a lesser blogger I would put a smiley face here.

Walter E. Williams : Liberty Versus Socialism - Williams takes a closer look at the slippery slope we are headed down with our government approach to health care. If the government has a financial interest in you leading a healthy lifestyle there is virtually no facet of your life over which the government cannot claim control. Smoking and helmets are the beginning. But this inexorably leads to control of fatty foods, exercise, and precious, precious alcohol. But we've been down that road before and I'll have my Tommy gun at the ready.

Jonah Goldberg : An Early Autopsy on the Clinton Campaign - I really feel bad for Jonah publishing this article prior to the results of yesterday's contest. It really seems premature in today's light. But one line is prescient: "Democrats won't be pleased that Hillary raised the who-should-take-the-call question with John McCain in the race."

Lawrence Kudlow : Resurrect King Dollar - Kudlow argues for strengthening the dollar on the world stage. This makes perfect sense from an economic standpoint but he thinks McCain will score political points by making this central to his campaign. But considering that a shockingly large percentage of the American population thinks the government can simply print more money and give it to them, and that since it doesn't, the government is mean, I doubt this is a winning political strategy. I suspect the percentage of the population that understands the role of the dollar with regard to world markets and inflation is closer to zero than to one percent.

World's Smallest Gun

(Via Drudge)

At less than 2" long, this actually fires real bullets, 6 of them. Unfortunately it's banned nearly everywhere.

Check it out.

We have a nominee!

Time to celebrate!

I'm off to vote...

Don't call me a hero. I'm just doing my duty.

Today's task will be even more distasteful than when I (literally) held my nose and voted for Bob Taft.

Today I will cast my ballot for Hillary.

A couple days ago my dad called me a political whore. Well I may need a shot of penicillin after this.

Update: It's official...

March 4th 2008 - Today's Columns:

Thomas Sowell : Rescuing the Rust Belt - Sowell provides an excellent autopsy of the rust belt. Decades of union wages and work rules and high taxes have created have led businesses to move away from Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia, etc. and opened up opportunities for new businesses to capture market share. But the people and the policies remain behind like the salted earth at Carthage. Nothing can ever grow there while that poison remains. Until a significant portion of Americans understand simple economic principles, these events will be repeated again and again. There is no free lunch.

Rich Lowry : The Superfluous Woman - As much as I enjoy bashing Hillary, I fail to see the point of Lowry's column. Next.

Rich Galen : A Name, An Ad - "her campaign might have made real strides with rank-and-file Democrats if her staff would have had her answer the phone at 3 AM dressed in a ratty old robe, no make up, her hair uncombed, a cigarette hanging from the corner of her mouth, and a bunny slipper dangling from one foot."

Robert Knight : Clueless in Obama Nation - This article is about religion. I've been hoodwinked!

Jonah Goldberg : The Prince of Polysyllabism - A tribute to WFB. "You cannot paint the Mona Lisa by assigning one dab each to a thousand painters"

Michael Barone : Throw Out the Old Electoral Maps in 2008 - Barone opines that the red/blue divide of the past will not be determinative of the future. The candidates are widely different this time around and the vote will split along different lines than the past two Presidential elections.

Robert D. Novak : Bailing Out Barack -

• Obama made a major mistake in the debate by not denouncing Farrakhan's support but was saved by Hillary's remark about rejecting the New York Independence Party's endorsement.
• Hillary's ugly complaint in the debate about being called on first was planned in order to play up Saturday Night Live's depiction of media favoritism of Obama.
• Rumors are circulating that McCain won the last minute endorsement from Gov. Christ of Florida by promising him a VP spot on the ticket.
• Newt turned friends into enemies by his support of Rep. Wayne Gilchrest in MD. [It seems to me Newt has been trimming his sails lately and largely on environmental issues in an apparent effort to make his potential Presidential candidacy more palatable to the wider electorate. I respect and admire Newt highly and I fail to understand his recent actions. As Ayn Rand warned: “Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.”]
• Denny Hastert's Illinois district is up for grabs. A Democratic victory there "would be heralded as a harbinger of a big Democratic year ahead."
  
  

Charles Krauthammer : The Freedom to Lobby - Krauthammer points out that the no matter how much politicians rail against "special interests", the right to lobby is Constitutionally guaranteed:

Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and
to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Great advertisement

(Hat tip: Gizmodo)

February 28th 2008 - Today's Columns:

Ann Coulter : William F. Buckley: R.I.P., Enfant Terrible - Coulter chooses to focus on the terrible side of the enfant terrible. This approach is interesting and enlightening to those of us who came along after Buckley had won the war of ideas and mellowed his approach. For my whole life Buckley was seen as congenial and intellectual. It's important to look back at some of the battles during the early years and relive his heroics. "Buckley may have been a conservative celebrity, but there was a lot more to him than a bow tie and a sailboat." I've read and heard quite a bit of sorrow for the passing of WFB in that there is no heir (or worse that his heirs are bombastic flamethrowers like Coulter and Limbaugh). But I think the reason there is no clear heir to Buckley is because he was sui generis in his time. Today there are many conservative intellectuals on the scene, all spawned by Buckley's legacy. None stand out as the singularity as did he, not because they're not great but because there are so many of them.

Victor Davis Hanson : The World in 2009 - VDH describes the world as it is with its challenges and threats and how they really have virtually nothing to do with George W. Bush. The next president will have to face these challenges and simply not being Bush is not going to turn around all our enemies and detractors. Much of the world sees us, as Osama Bin Laden said, as the "weak horse." Weakness invites challenges, be they military, economic, or diplomatic.

George Will : McCain's Good Times - Ouch! Politics can be so incestuous and dirty sometimes. And Will exposes McCain's "situational ethic[s]" with regard to campaign financing.

Robert D. Novak : How Not to Run for VP - Novak reports on Tim Pawlenty's (R-MN) actions as the head of the National Governor's Association. Like far too many Republicans, Pawlenty has bought into the hoax of Global Warmism and has thus made himself a poor choice as VP for McCain. I think Novak may be giving McCain too much credit for doing the smart thing instead of stubbornly thumbing his nose at his own base.

Lawrence Kudlow : Obama's Big-Government Vision - Kudlow discusses Obama's plans for raising income taxes, corporate taxes, dividend taxes, capital gains taxes, doubling the earned-income tax credit, tripling the benefit for minimum wage earners, establish a mortgage interest tax credit (another tax reduction for those who don't pay taxes [welfare]), all while regulating the profits of big businesses thusly reducing their incentives to expand and grow. Obama's current tally for his various proposals is at $800 billion. That's $2,666 for every man, woman, and child in this country. Which means the average family of four would have a higher tax burden of over $10,500 each year. As we all know only roughly half the population are workers (remove retirees, homemakers, children, students, etc.) and only roughly half of all workers pay any income tax at all. That means that the aforementioned $2,666 per person must be paid by an increasingly smaller number of people. In other words, instead of $10K for a family of four, a family that actually pays taxes would have an increased burden of approximately $40K. Every year. And Obama attempts to sell this to the voters as a means of increasing economic opportunity. Take from the rich, give to the poor. Has that ever worked?

Emmett Tyrrell : A Redwood Falls in the Forest - Tyrrell writes a heartfelt obituary in honor of the great William F. Buckley Jr. I would love to get my hands on one of those oils.

Rich Galen : The Clinton Legacy - Galen predicts the demise of Hillary as a candidate and of Bill's legacy. I maintain that this is premature.

John Stossel : Guns Save Lives - "It's impossible to know exactly how often guns stop criminals. Would-be victims don't usually report crimes that don't happen. But people use guns in self-defense every day."

Walter E. Williams : Africa: A Tragic Continent - Williams lists the woes of Africa and debunks the argument that its problems are due to its history of colonialism. He details why foreign aid is counterproductive and lists the governmental reforms necessary to success. All of this is true but not terribly enlightening unless this is your first time hearing anything about Africa from someone who thinks more deeply than Bono. What is needed from conservative Western thinkers is to spend more time on African issues and come up with a plan to start down the path to success. It is not enough to simply say that African problems require the African people to implement reforms for property rights, rule of law, etc. This is true but I for one refuse to accept that we cannot influence the situation. Great minds like those of Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell are capable of more and I'd like to see them spend the time to come up with a way to move forward.

Thomas Sowell : A Lesson From Venezuela - Sowell examines economic lessons from price controls throughout history from the ancient Egyptians and Romans to Richard Nixon and Hugo Chavez. It is truly amazing that over thousands of years people still refuse to learn simple economic principles and leaders still take the same actions that have proven to lead to failure, time and time again.

Jonah Goldberg : Radicals Never Say Sorry - "What fascinates me is how light the baggage is when one travels from violent radicalism to liberalism."

Thomas Sowell : Bad Times - Sowell catalogues and laments the demise of The New York Times. It is interesting that so many once reputable and proud publications are resorting to sensationalism and hyperbole in order to attract an audience. Their audiences continue to shrink as the market fragments and this in turn encourages even more outrageous tactics. I don't know where this is all heading but I suspect it will become harder and harder in the short term to find reliable, or at least widely credible news sources.

Rich Lowry : On Trade: Obama's Opportunistic Fear-Mongering - Lowry looks at some statistics and economic trends to take apart the Left's rhetoric on NAFTA.

Rich Galen : Ralph Nader and Alan Keyes - Galen on how closely divided the U.S. electorate is and the need for each Republican and/or conservative to vote.

Best Headline Ever

"Man convicted of sex with dead deer loses appeal" - Daily Reporter (Wisconsin construction industry trade publication)

(Via James Taranto - Best of the Web, who adds "hard to believe he had much to begin with")

Quote of the Day

"Smith did believe free markets could better the world. He once said, in a paper delivered to a learned society, that progress required "little else...but peace, easy taxes, and tolerable administration of justice." But those three things were then - and are now - the three hardest things in the world to find. Smith preached against the gravitational load of power and privilege that always will, if it can, fall upon our livelihood. The Wealth of Nations is a sturdy bulwark of a homily on liberty and honest enterprise. It does go on and on. But sermons must last a long time for the same reason that walls must. The wall isn't trying to change the roof's mind about crushing us." - P.J. O'Rourke, On the Wealth of Nations.

(Hat Tip: Samizdata)

February 24th 2008 - Today's Columns:

George Will : Pondering the Choice of Vices - Will takes a quick look at several Vice Presidential choices for McCain and the need for Hillary to pick one now. One McCain Veep choice overlooked is Condi Rice. She's young, smart, experienced, proven herself incredibly capable, and for those with their eyes firmly fixed on identity politics, she's a two-fer!

Mark Steyn: Obama Makes Hillary Look Like Bill Richardson - "Hillary is what the Clintons look like with their pants up."

Obama editorial at IMAO

Read the whole thing at the link but make sure you're sitting down and not drinking milk (unless you like shooting it out of your nose).

At each of my campaign stops, people come to me and say, "Osama..." -- not my actual name, but I'm used to it -- "...I like hope. I like change. I like kittens and bunny rabbits. But which should I choose?" I say to these future hopers and changers that there is no need to choose.

February 23rd 2008 - Today's Columns:

Charles Krauthammer : Snatching Defeat Away From Victory - "Are the Democrats so intent on denying George Bush retroactive vindication for a war they insist is his that they would deny their own country a now achievable victory?"

Victor Davis Hanson : Ivy League Populism - "Sens. Obama and Clinton try to outdo each other in blaming government for our lack of individual responsibility and promising solutions by raising taxes to give us more government, they offer little change and less hope."

Hugh Hewitt : The Least Unpredictable Campaign Ever? - Hewitt describes his vision of how the coming campaign between McCain and Obama will unfold. He also offers a bit of fear to we incalcitrant conservatives who do not support McCain:

Imagine how bad it could be in the next four years: Iran gets its nukes and unveils a delivery system. Pakistan's chaos mounts and an Islamist government takes over. Turkey's Islamists demand action against our Kurdish allies. Hezbollah and Hamas relentlessly attack and provoke Israel and a replay of the summer of 2006 begins. Kenya erupts in slaughter. Serbian militias attack the newly independent Kosovo. Rioting in the French suburbs accelerates. Russia shuts off its gas, and China demands Taiwan reach an accord. A terrorist attack occurs in London, Paris or D.C.

George Will : The Democrats' Four-Letter F-Word - Will discusses the fairness of the different possibilities in the Democratic primary race.

Robert D. Novak : Our Man in Islamabad - Novak details American intervention in Pakistan on behalf of Musharraf in an effort to enlist Pakistani help in the fight against radical Islamists. It seems clearer now that the strategy of propping up military dictators in far-off lands in order to pressure other enemies is one that has had few successes. I suspect this is also a large part of the reason why the U.S. is regularly distrusted or even despised in so many parts of the world.

Emmett Tyrrell : Delusions of Grandeur - Not that I don't find Tyrrell to insightful and interesting, but it is his gift for humor that most entices me to read him.

The Democratic Party went into decline almost everywhere throughout the republic while [Bill Clinton] was bemanuring the White House.

Who else comes up with words like "bemanuring"? That's just fun to say. I believe it was in 2004 that Tyrrell pinned Howard Dean acolytes with the label "indignant morons", one of my all-time favorites.

A modest proposal

Since Republicans these days are fond of parroting Democrats on their issues but with a low-fat twist, I have an idea for John McCain to kill two birds with one stone (That’s just a figure of speech by the way. Obviously it would be wrong to harm one of the native creatures of Mother Earth, and worse to harm many. Avifauna genocide should never be tolerated. Never again. It is equally wrong to disturb the pristine landscape by removing stones. That single stone could be essential habitat for any number of species. Unless you’re a Palestinian and you’re throwing rocks at Jews [Jooos], it is not okay.)


The grand church of liberalism these days resides in Global Warmism and its Holy Grail the Kyoto Protocols. But even the Kool-Aide drinkers of the Movement only predict negligible reductions in global warming over 100 years if the Protocols were enacted today. The right has been claiming for years that the Kyoto Protocols, if enacted in the U.S., would reduce our economic output to such a level that the Great Depression would seem like a bad hair day. Not only that but China and India are exempted from the Sacred Protocols and would be free to pollute to their hearts’ content. All this is true but it seems to be falling on deaf ears. In fact, the constant drumbeat in the legacy media seems to be shifting public opinion toward believing that the situation, as Otter would say, “absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.”


Here’s where McCain can steal the left’s thunder. He should propose that the U.S. build a colossal air conditioning appliance for the entire planet. It would have to be massive, roughly the size of New Jersey. In fact, that seems like as good a place as any to put it. There’s a good chance no one would notice the difference.


The key to this plan’s success is in the building process. It would essentially be a new TVA. The Colossal Air Conditioning Appliance, or CACA for short, should employ millions. Every current welfare recipient should be sent to New Jersey to become gainfully employed making CACA. We could even hire the homeless mentally challenged as designers. They could sit in a big room and throw CACA ideas at each other all day (then hug). Just imagine how it would help their self-esteem to work on the biggest piece of CACA the world has ever seen. This would also virtually ensure that the building process would never be complete. But that’s the beauty of it!


Now I can already hear some of you nay saying engineers out there. “How can you possibly cool the earth with a giant piece of CACA sitting in New Jersey? Your refrigerator can’t cool your kitchen. You have to exhaust the heat somewhere.” First, quit being such a dweeb. Try kissing a girl sometime. Second, you’re missing the point. Remember the wisdom of Otter. If we’re already 2/3 of the way toward doing something massively expensive, economically ruinous, and its supporters claim at best only negligible end benefits, all for the sake of making an offering to the gods of Global Warmism, I think we could at least reap the benefit of getting the riffraff off the streets.


In this one simple plan we can house the homeless, employ the unemployed, end welfare through work, bring back America’s manufacturing sector, and show the world that we are proactive and concerned about global warming, thereby restoring America’s sullied reputation in the global community. We could even paint the thing rainbow colored and achieve equal rights for all our citizens.


McCain, I hope your people are paying attention.

February 20th 2008 - Today's Columns:

First let me apologize for my absence the last few days. I've been visiting my brother in sunny California. I'll have less-than-exciting pictures from Berkeley posted shortly.

Lawrence Kudlow : It's Over - Kudlow expresses his Schadenfreude at the demise of the Hillary campaign. I still think it's far too early to dance on her grave. Wisconsin may have been a mighty big nail in her coffin but she will not go quietly. I suspect it will sound more like shrieking, maybe with an occasional cackle. Careers will be ruined, pantsuits will burst, bros will be tazed. Think Sherman's march to the sea, the sacking of Carthage. Mark my words.

Ann Coulter : How to Keep Reagan Out of Office - In her typically subtle and understated style, Coulter lists the ways that campaign finance laws, particularly McCain-Feingold, work to keep good people out of politics and leave the field for turds like McCain.

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann : Warning To Superdelegates: Obama Fans Will Keep Score - The title pretty much says it all.

John Stossel : Presidents Can't Manage the Economy - "Politicians who talk about managing the economy ignore the fact that, strictly speaking, there is no economy. There are only people producing, buying and selling goods and services. "

Walter E. Williams : Costs vs. Benefits - This is a subject Williams has written about for years but most people remain painfully ignorant of it.

If we look to benefits only, we'll do darn near anything because there's always a benefit. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that there were 43,443 highway fatalities in 2005. If we had a maximum speed law of
15 mph, the death toll wouldn't be nearly as high, probably not even as high as 500. You say, "Williams, that's a crazy idea!" You're right, but let's not call it crazy; it's more accurate to say: saving some 43,000 lives aren't worth the cost and inconvenience of a 15 mph speed limit.

Michelle Malkin : Michelle Obama's America -- and Mine - Malkin catalogues the numerous reasons to be proud of America, pointing out Michelle Obama's gaffe.

Mark Steyn: Obama the Muzak Messiah of the pseudo-revolution - Steyn on the utter emptyness and, sadly, inevitability of Obama.

February 15th 2008 - Today's Columns:

Charles Krauthammer : Obama, the Platitude Salesman -

Rich Lowry : Hillary: By Any Means Necessary -

Hugh Hewitt : A Funny Thing About Revolutions.... -