HOGWASH

This morning Fox News and other outlets are reporting that the financial markets lost over a trillion dollars overnight.

Utter nonsense. To borrow a phrase from Mike Baker, "What a load of crap!"

The market didn't lose a damn dime. I did. You did. Anyone who has a pension, retirement savings account, mutual fund, or a few stocks and bonds did.

Memo to the media: report the facts.

ANSWER: DAMIFINO

QUESTION: WHAT DO I MAKE OF TODAY’S VOTE ON THE BAILOUT?

What I do know is that the Democrats voted for it 141-94; Republicans opposed it 66-132.

What I do know is that the Democrats have a majority in the House; they could have passed the bill 235-198 if they were willing to accept ownership of the result.

What I do know is that the majority party is insisting that the minority party is responsible for the bill not passing.

What I do know is that the American people strongly opposed the bailout. And anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that the NO votes came from congresscritters from contested districts.

Given that, it seems to me that the bailout was wisely rejected.

Next question: which Presidential candidate will step up to the plate?

UH, HUH

From INSTAPUNDIT:

A READER AT A MAJOR NEWSROOM EMAILS: "Off the record, every suspicion you have about MSM being in the tank for O is true. We have a team of 4 people going thru dumpsters in Alaska and 4 in arizona. Not a single one looking into Acorn, Ayers or Freddiemae. Editor refuses to publish anything that would jeopardize election for O, and betting you dollars to donuts same is true at NYT, others. People cheer when CNN or NBC run another Palin-mocking but raising any reasonable inquiry into obama is derided or flat out ignored. The fix is in, and its working."

Tell me something I don’t know ....

THOUGHTS ON THE BAILOUT

It appears that the outline, at least, of the bailout legislation has been mostly agreed to. Powerline has a side-by-side comparison of the final outline with both the Paulson and Democratic proposals here. I’ve looked at the comparison, and I tend to agree with Powerline: “House Republicans negotiated on behalf of the taxpayers; without their resistance to the original deal that the White House and Congressional Democrats signed off on, the bailout unquestionably would have been worse.”

The question is, did the Republicans succeed in improving the legislation? I don’t know. I think the conventional wisdom is correct – something needs to be done, and quickly – but it should be the minimum necessary to free up the credit markets. I’m not sure this is the minimum necessary.

McCAIN – 1; NYT – 0

The New York Times attempts to link the McCain campaign with Freddie Mac:

One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month from the end of 2005 through last month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement.

The disclosure undercuts a remark by Mr. McCain on Sunday night that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, had had no involvement with the company for the last several years.

Mr. Davis’s firm received the payments from the company, Freddie Mac, until it was taken over by the government this month along with Fannie Mae, the other big mortgage lender whose deteriorating finances helped precipitate the cascading problems on Wall Street, the two people said.

They said they did not recall Mr. Davis’s doing much substantive work for the company in return for the money, other than to speak to a political action committee of high-ranking employees in October 2006 on the approaching midterm Congressional elections. They said Mr. Davis’s firm, Davis Manafort, had been kept on the payroll because of his close ties to Mr. McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, who by 2006 was widely expected to run again for the White House.

The McCain campaign fires back:

The New York Times has never published a single investigative piece, factually correct or otherwise, examining the relationship between Obama campaign chief strategist David Axelrod, his consulting and lobbying clients, and Senator Obama. Likewise, the New York Times never published an investigative report, factually correct or otherwise, examining the relationship between Former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson and Senator Obama, who appointed Johnson head of his VP search committee, until the writing was on the wall and Johnson was under fire following reports from actual news organizations (emphasis mine) that he had received preferential loans from predatory mortgage lender Countrywide.

The NYT is not an “actual news organization?” Imagine that.

RUSSIA FROM ALASKA?

Russia from Alaska: taken at 10:05 pm EDT, 27 September 2008.


The camera is here.


Another view taken at 10:29 pm EDT

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE

Angry Bear has a suggestion for funding the bailout.

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transaction is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction.

After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully
Minister of Treasury Paulson

Via the Volokh Conspiracy.

MORE ON THE BAILOUT

From Jim Lindgren at the Volokh Conspiracy:

I was mildly in favor of the bailout until I read Dodd's proposed statute. The way that the statute is drafted is so tricky and its definition of profit is so unsophisticated and nonsensical that the statute smells more of graft than of an honest attempt to solve the financial crisis. We are moving from failed "crony capitalism" to failed "crony community organizing."

Emphasis is mine. The text of the proposed statute is here.

WHO'S AT FAULT?

If this video is even roughly correct, and it passes my personal smell test, then Sen. McCain did the American taxpayer a great favor if he indeed did cause the bailout proposal to blow up in Congress's face.

MORON COLLIDER

The Brewster Rockit cartoon has been having a great deal of fun mocking the Large Hadron Collider, and today Tim Rickard (accidentally?) nailed Congress (I changed only three words).

Enjoy.

PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE NOTES

Obama did better than I expected, but I wasn’t initially impressed with either candidate. It seemed like they were trading sound bites.

During the early discussion of taxes, why didn’t McCain point out to Obama that corporations don’t pay taxes; that they’re simply a cost of doing business that is reflected in the prices we pay?

Obama kept harping on how much the war in Iraq cost, but never pressed the obvious point: that when he ended the war, the money could be refunded to the American taxpayers. He couldn’t; he needs the money to pay for his programs.

JOURNALISTIC HYSTERIA

In watching the pre-debate journalistic hysteria, I’m reminded of a comment by James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal in his “Best of the Web” column of 15 September: “What's the difference between a journalist and a watchdog? Rabies.”

TWO SPACE SHUTTLES

This will be the last time we will ever see two space shuttles on launch pads simultaneously.


Atlantis is on Pad-39A (in the foreground) and is planned for launch no earlier than October 10 to service the Hubble Space Telescope. Endeavour is on Pad-39B (in the background) and will only be launch from Pad-39B if there is an emergency with Atlantis.

AfterAtlantis safely lands, Endeavour will move to Pad-39A to prepare for the next mission to the International Space Station no earlier than November 10.

Pad-39B will then be turned over to the new Constellation program to begin construction for the new Ares I crew launch vehicle.



And finally, we now know what is to be found at the end of the rainbow.

CAMPUS FOLLIES

Ann Althouse reports that the University of Illinois is telling all its employees they can't wear political buttons or attend political rallies on campus.

Faculty, at least, should be required to wear political buttons while on campus – makes it easier to find your targets. (Universities aren’t target-rich environments? – Daisy. Down, girl.)

Instapundit comments.

CARIBOU SARAH

Some posts back, I mentioned Jonah Goldberg's comment that Sarah Palin was born to kill caribou and kick butt. Well, here it is in picture form.

ELECTION MUDSLINGING

I just heard John Fund on Fox News say that "Americans are looking for less negative mudslinging."

Does that mean that we want more positive mudslinging?

How does one distinguish between positive mudslinging and negative mudslinging?

SUNDAY CATBLOGGING

Kiljoy, er, Kilroy (aka Shadow) is here.

FIRST TIME EVER

This is the first time we have ever put a state or national campaign sign in our front yard.

Returning from breakfast in Culpeper this morning, we counted campaign signs in peoples' yards: McCain - 10; Obama - 1.

No idea what - if anything - it means.

[UPDATE] Maybe this is the reason.

TRILLION DOLLAR QUESTION

In “The trillion-dollar question" Austin Bay has a good discussion of the “old” and “new” media. While I agree with almost all of his commentary, he missed the target on his final question:

“But the trillion-dollar question has not quite been answered: How do you make enough money to support the investigative reporter who is just looking for the facts, ma'am?”

With all due respect, the question really is “How do you find an investigative reporter who is just looking for the facts?”

TODD PALIN INTERVIEW

For however long the link holds, you can watch the Todd Palin interviews with Greta Van Susteren here.

OH, HORRORS!

TPM Muckraker has found that Gov. Sarah has had a tanning bed - bought used, and paid for with her own money - installed in the Governor's mansion. How ... tacky.

Uh, TPM. Alaska cold. Long winter nights. Vitamin D deficiency is real.

ANOTHER ELECTORAL MAP

Amazon has an electoral map which colors the states red or blue according to the popularity of books sold by state. What is most interesting is that the map is updated bimonthly, so that one can track reading trends.

To the extent that reading choices correlate with electoral trends, the map is a good omen for the Republicans.

HMM ...

I wonder just how seriously to take this electoral map. The map is updated daily, and the effort put into data collection and analysis is impressive.














My take: in a word, the frontier spirit has been revitalized.

CAMPAIGN RHETORIC

In his Townhall column Art for the Artist's Sake? describing a misbegotten piece of “public art” Paul Greenberg said:

"Some of what she said was technical, and you would have had to be a welder to appreciate it; the rest was aesthetic or generally philosophical, and to appreciate it you would have had to be an imbecile."

Change only two words – “she” to “Obama” and “welder” to “politician” – and you’ve completely described the Democrat’s campaign platform.

BEST LIBERAL ARGUMENT EVER FOR GLOBAL WARMING

“If global cooling does increase, the hockey mom population is going to explode.”

from commenter JKB at Don Surber’s place.

VOTING RACIST?

In The Big 'What If' Randall Kennedy subscribes to racist motives if white voters don’t vote for Barack Obama. According to him, black voters

[D]eep in their bones, ... will believe -- and probably rightly -- that race was a key element, that had the racial shoe been on the other foot -- had John McCain been black and Obama white -- the result would have been different.

If Obama loses, ... I'll believe that American voters have made a huge mistake. And I'll think that an important ingredient of their error is racial prejudice -- not the hateful, snarling, open bigotry that terrorized my parents in their youth, but rather a vague, sophisticated, low-key prejudice that is chameleonlike in its ability to adapt to new surroundings and to hide even from those firmly in its grip.

So white voters must vote for Obama to prove they’re not racist. But that logic cuts both ways, for the converse is that black voters must vote for McCain to prove they’re not racist.

It appears that the progressives are so invested in race and victim politics that they cannot possibly conceive any possibility that voters, of any race, gender, religion, or economic status might believe that McCain is the better choice.

How sad.

POST WATCH, PART III

In Stopping At Nothing To Win, David Ignatius continues to beat the discredited “Palin is too inexperienced” drum by blaming John McCain:

In the military culture that shaped John McCain, there is no more important responsibility than the promotion boards that select the right officers for top positions of command. It's a sacred trust in McCain's world, because people's lives are at stake.

McCain wrote in his memoir of the officer's responsibility for those who serve under him: "He does not risk their lives and welfare for his sake, but only to answer the shared duty they are called to answer."

McCain made the most important command decision of his life when he chose Sarah Palin as his vice presidential nominee. Two weeks later, it is still puzzling that he selected a person who, for all her admirable qualities, is not prepared by experience or interest to be commander in chief. No promotion board in history would have made such a decision.

Uh, David, military promotion boards, like the American public, are perfectly capable of recognizing talent when they see it.

GEN David Petreaus was promoted from a Brigadier General (1-star) in 1999 to General (4-star) in 2007 – a mere 8 years. That was talent, not experience.

Before he retired to become Director of National Intelligence. Mike McConnell was a Vice Admiral (3-star) in the U.S. Navy. In a speech delivered at his alma mater (Furman University), McConnell stated, “He [Colin Powell] caused me to go from Mike McConnell, brand-new one-star, to Mike McConnell, three-star...and it happened nine months after I pinned on one star.” Talent, not experience.

The American people promoted Bill Clinton from Governor of a small state to President of the United States. Talent, not experience.

The American people promoted George W. Bush from Governor of a larger state to President of the United States. Talent, not experience.

Mr. McCain recognizes talent, and the American people rightly approve his judgment.

POST WATCH, PART II

The Post’s third Obama apologist, Marc Fisher, has a wonderful snark-filled entry (For Working Moms, ‘Flawed’ Palin Is the Perfect Choice) for the “Palin is Average” contest.

Eight working mothers from the Virginia Run development in Centreville went together to the Palin-McCain rally yesterday because Sarah Palin is "just like us." This is something new. Nobody ever accused Franklin Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan of being just like us.

Perhaps it's because they weren't snobs disdainful of the little people clinging to their Bibles and guns.

In this time of "American Idol," bedroom bloggers and the belief that experience, knowledge and education don't necessarily mean a whole lot, Palin is a symbol, a statement that anyone can make it if he or she really tries.

Isn’t that the American dream?

The crowd, which I counted at 8,000 but which police estimated at 23,000, gathered at Van Dyck Park in Fairfax City represented votes for John McCain but passion for Palin... [D]id the man who might be the next president know that hundreds would start streaming out of the park as soon as Palin finished speaking, leaving a noticeably sparser audience to hear from the top of the ticket?

Heh. Thanks, Marc, for reminding of us of the “The One.”

Think of whomever you consider the greatest presidents, and odds are, they were about as far as you can get from being like the rest of us. They tend to have come from wealth, power, fame, the pinnacle of our education system or all of the above.

Abraham Lincoln. Harry Truman. Lyndon Johnson.

In this hyperdemocratized society, the national conviction that anyone can succeed is morphing into a belief that experience and knowledge may almost be disqualifying credentials.

No, Marc. What is happening is that the nation has finally come to recognize that the elite – “those from wealth, power, fame, the pinnacle of our education system” - don’t have a lock on intelligence, courage, conviction, common sense, knowledge, or experience, for that matter.

Reader Rebecca F. Benner swallows the average meme whole. Lauding Fisher in the (9/13) Letters section she writes: “It astounds me that [just like me] is one of the qualities that most people desire most. After all, we do not want our doctors, lawyers, airline pilots or electricians to be just like us.” and “I want a president who is smarter, better educated, more even-tempered and far wiser than I am.”

Rebecca, there are differences between being trained, being smart, and being wise.

[UPDATE 9/13] Power Line links to a post by Steven F. Hayward:

Give 'em Hell, Sarah
Like Truman, a natural-born executive

Lurking just below the surface of the second-guessing about Sarah Palin's fitness to be president is the serious question of whether we still believe in the American people's capacity for self-government, what we mean when we affirm that all American citizens are equal, and whether we tacitly believe there are distinct classes of citizens and that American government at the highest levels is an elite occupation.

Exactly right.

POST WATCH

Part One of a continuing series (well, continuing until I can no longer stomach reading the Washington Post editorial page).

The Obama apology twins are back, whining through their lipstick.

Here’s EJ Dionne, Tiptoeing through the mud:

The campaign is a blur of flying pieces of junk, lipstick and gutter-style attacks.

The media bear a heavy responsibility because "balance" does not require giving equal time to truth and lies. So does McCain, who is running a disgraceful, dishonorable campaign of distraction and diversion.

and Eugene Robinson, Listening to the scream machine:

I hear McCain's amen chorus screaming, "Lipstick on a pig! Lipstick on a pig!" But they're well aware that Barack Obama was unambiguously talking about McCain's economic ideas, not his running mate. It seems incomprehensible that the McCain campaign would make so much noise about an allegation that clearly doesn't hold a drop of water -- until you realize that the noise is the whole point.

As long as people are talking about barnyard beauty tips, they're not talking about substance. Any day spent arguing about meaningless ephemera is a small but significant victory for a campaign that has nothing to say.

Uh, huh. Just who made the “lipstick on a pig” comment, anyway? Let’s be generous and assume that the lipstick comment was “unambiguously about McCain’s economic ideas” (a stretch) and Obama is half as smart as the Democrats think he is. Just how smart do you have to be to realize the implication of that comment when one-half your opponent’s team is female?

Back to E.J.:

Yes, Democrats are a gloomy lot, inclined to see ... the other side as tougher, meaner and more manipulative.

Tough? Well, yes, Republicans are tough. Progressives might be able to figure that out if they’d abandon their stereotype of red America as filled with gap-toothed hillbillies too stupid to look out for their own interests and look anew at the people who are actually building this great nation.

Mean? Well, if by “mean” Dionne infers that Republicans fight back with all the tools* at their command, then yes, I guess Republicans are “mean.”

But manipulative? Oh, come now, E.J. Hunters don’t manipulate their prey into a trap; they shoot straight for the heart.

So, yes, Democrats have a right to be gloomy.**

------------------------------------------------
*Sarcasm is a tool. So is humor. Both are more effective than obscenity and whining.

**Gotcha!

THERE IS A GOD

Idiot newscaster gets swamped by hurricane ...



Couldn't have happened to a nicer person.

OBLIVIOUS

The Washington Post Style section today has a 4-column, above the fold picture of Sarah Palin with the headline “Who Do We Think She Is?”

Um, the next Vice President of the United States?

NO MORE MR. NICE GUY

The very next time a telephone solicitor calls me and reminds me to fasten my seat belt, eat my Wheaties, or take my vitamins, I'm going to reach through the telephone, grab him by the throat, and shove those words so far down that they stick out the other end.

I am sick and tired of nanny-state elitists who feel compelled to treat me as a wayward child before demanding that I give them my money so they can further protect me.

Be warned.

NEVER FORGET

I'm also linking to this 9/11 rememberance with thanks to Instapundit for reminding me of the link.

Never Forget.

ELECTION PREDICTION

Given what I’ve read – and heard – since the nominating conventions, I’m going to go way out on a limb with these predictions. Someone can hand me a saw later.

1. It will be McCain/Palin by a landslide, possibly rivaling the 1972 Presidential election.

2. The Democratic party as currently constituted will collapse in flames.

3. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, a new center-left Democratic party will arise from the ashes, consigning the progressive “reality-based” wing to the “dustbin of history.”

4. Moderates and independent voters will have a choice again.

Republicans, if they’re smart, will take prediction #3 very seriously. [Prediction #5: they won’t.]

BUMPER SNICKERS

McCAIN/PALIN - strong, decisive

OBAMA/BIDEN - wrong, divisive

LOOK FAMILIAR?

BIKE RACE

This one is too good to pass up.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON STRIKES AGAIN

Via Instapundit: Victor Davis Hanson notes that "On matters like abortion, capital punishment, gun control and FISA, Obama again moves closer to McCain rather than vice versa."

Given that Obama still has a chance at becoming the next President, I’m grateful for the movement. Nevertheless, I have more confidence that the McCain/Palin ticket will remain true to its committments.

Here’s Hanson again:

I have been far more comfortable with, and have far more confidence in, the pragmatic judgment and worldview of rural America than I have found among the blinkered and intolerant sophisticated and educated elite.... Columbia, Harvard, Chicago wards, and Trinity Church do not offer any stimulus for pragmatism, self-reliance, or American exceptionalism, but are landscapes in which government is the answer, a particular elite know best, politics is the art of dispersing someone else’s money, and America is to blamed first not last in matters of controversy.

Yes. The “reality-based community” has proven time and time again to be completely ungrounded.

AVERAGE ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH

In a Los Angeles Times opinion piece, Sam Harris, a founder of the Reason Project takes issue with the selection of Sarah Palin as the Vice President nominee of the Republican Party.

In his opening shot, Harris claims that according to Social Security actuarial tables Mr. McCain has a 10% likelihood of not surviving his first term in office. a 27% percent chance of not surviving his second term, and that therefore an “average” (meaning unqualified) Sarah Palin could become president. Here’s Harris at his worst:

Let me put it plainly: If you want someone just like you to be president of the United States, or even vice president, you deserve whatever dysfunctional society you get. You deserve to be poor, to see the environment despoiled, to watch your children receive a fourth-rate education and to suffer as this country wages -- and loses -- both necessary and unnecessary wars.

Well.

Lets apply some “reason” to Mr. Harris’ statements.

First, the actuarial tables. Yes, in any given year a person has a certain percentage risk of dying. And that factor does increase year to year. But the relevant statistic is not percentage of risk; it is life expectancy. According to the standard mortality tables, a 72-year old man has a life expectancy of 14 years. Last I checked, two terms in office is only 8 years, and so when he retires after two full terms in office, Mr. McCain will still have a life expectancy of 9 years. Imagine that.

Second, Sarah Palin is average? AVERAGE? Oh, come now, Mr. Harris. Mrs. Palin is far, far from average. Average people don’t become mayors of towns, even small towns. Average people don’t become Governors of states, even small states.

According to its web site, the Reason Project (I’m quoting here) is … "devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society. The foundation draws on the talents of prominent and creative thinkers in a wide range of disciplines to encourage critical thinking and erode the influence of dogmatism, superstition, and bigotry in our world."

It's failing. Perhaps because it isn’t “average.”

BIRDS OF A FEATHER?

Remember "Rage Boy," the Islamist protestor who was always appearing in the news?
Keep that face in mind and go here to see "Rage Girl."

Right. Just your average "Woman for Peace."

FOR THE FIRST TIME, I FEEL LIKE WE DESERVE TO WIN MORE THAN THEY DESERVE TO LOSE

Bill Whittle writes that he's proud of the GOP. Read it.

IN THE WORDS OF MY SPEECHWRITER

David McGrath appears to think that Governor Palin scored a home run with her acceptance speech because it was written by a (horrors!) speechwriter.

Here’s McGrath:

Today, selling term papers to students to use as their own is still illegal, but selling speeches to politicians to use as their own remains a legitimate enterprise.
How can that be?

Uh, Mr. McGrath, are you certain it is? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m rather certain that Gov. Palin didn’t just ask for an acceptance speech. Nor would I believe that of any politician, on any speech. I’m pretty sure that Gov. Palin (and the McCain staff, of course) had thoughts, ideas, phrases, and organization that they wanted incorporated. And I’m pretty sure that Gov. Palin did the final editing. Back to Mr. McGrath:

[P]olitical audiences are already aware that politicians employ speechwriters. Granted, it can be easy to determine when President Bush is reciting from someone else's script and when he is ad libbing in his own fractured English. But how can we know whether a line, or an entire speech, comes from the brains of McCain or Obama, or from hired staffers?

Uh, maybe because the speaker is telling the speechwriter what he wants to say? McGrath again:

Can voters this year be sure they learned something about the real Sarah Palin from her GOP vice presidential nomination acceptance speech last night, considering news that it was originally written by speechwriter Matthew Scully over a week ago for an unknown male nominee?

Um, because it sounded like her? Campaign Spot reader Jay in Texas, said it this way:

The problem with the whole teleprompter argument is that the entire speech was about her life.

When she said that, as a mother of one of those troops, she wanted McCain as Commander in Chief, it doesn't matter who typed in the words. She wasn't just the reader; she was the mother of one of those troops.

When she talked about attacking corruption in the Republican party, she wasn't merely the speaker; she was the one who attacked corruption in her own party.

And when she spoke of the special love required for a special needs baby, she didn't just deliver the speech.

She also delivered the baby.

McGrath ends with this:

If contemporary political candidates cannot find time to write all their speeches, the way Teddy Roosevelt or Abraham Lincoln did, they should at least craft the major ones.

Does McGrath really believe that any speaker, President, Vice-President, or even lowly old me, would not have major input into his/her speech’s content, look, and feel?

Sure, the shoe was polished. But it fit.

A MESSAGE FOR OBAMA

An Iraq Air Force veteran has a little message for the junior senator from Illinois.

The video.

He’s not a professional speaker — but this is worth watching all the way through.

Via Don Surber

IF THE KITCHEN SINK DOESN'T WORK

Here are some more suggestions for the Democrats ....

Sarah Palin shops at Wal Mart!

Sarah Palin buys her eyeglasses at Lenscrafters.

They won't work, but what the hell. Nothing else has either.

[UPDATE] Heh. "Palin is also helping among men, conservatives, notably with suburban and rural voters, and with frequent Wal-Mart shoppers, who tend to be 'values' voters who like a good value for their money."

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF THE FAIR TAX

As a long-standing practicioner, I’ve long asserted that the fundamental obligation of systems engineering is to search for unintended consequences of product design decisions. I’ve even gone so far as to propose the Three Laws of Unintended Consequences, following in the footsteps of Isaac Asimov in his I, Robot collection of short stories.

They are:

First Law: There are always unintended consequences.
Second Law: At least one will be bad.
Third Law: It will appear at the most inopportune time.

But not all unintended consequences are bad. Most are just, well, unintended; and some may well be good.

And that brings me to the Fair Tax. It strikes me that the Fair Tax has unintended consequences that may prove to be very good indeed. Since the Fair Tax is not imposed on resales, it seems reasonable to think that it may cause (a) an uptick in recycling, and (b) a move away from “throw away” to “repair and reuse.”

For me personally, the latter is an important issue. I’m constantly frustrated by having to toss some useful item because of a minor defect which is more costly to repair than it is to replace.

HANNA HITS VIRGINIA

Well, let's see. According to the Storm Tracker on Fox News, hurricane Hanna is roughly overhead.

It's still raining and windy -- what we from the Mojave desert would describe as a light breeze. No trees are down, but the yard is littered with broken branches. The back yard is washing down into the creek (again) and the drainage ditch in front is eroding (again). There's some water in the basement, a result of a clogged gutter.

Driving around the neighborhood, our house is about the norm -- lots of litter in the roads and yard; some garbage cans blown over; water, water everywhere; not much else. According to the radio, we've had some 4-6 inches of rain so far.

Tomorrow the clean-up begins.

[UPDATE 9 Sep 08] The clean-up turned out to be a little more than I bargained for. The tree pictured above started leaning the next day and the power company had to bring out an emergency crew to take enough of it down to avoid taking out the power line, cable, three poles, and a transformer if it falls.

It's "safe" for now; a crew will return in the next few days to take it completely down and turn it into firewood.
[UPDATE II 11 Sep 2008] The white oak is now firewood and lumber - well, almost. Our neighbor still has to cart it away and we need to fill the dents that occurred when it came down, but the major work is done.

It's good we brought it down, because it was evident when they made the final cuts that the base was pretty rotted out.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON ON THE NOMINATION OF SARAH PALIN

Victor Davis Hanson has some thoughts about Sarah Palin's nomination to be the Republican candidate for Vice President:

A beautiful, confident, articulate, independent, accomplished—and conservative—woman apparently has enraged Team Obama, the mainstream media, and the entire American intelligentsia, as if they were collectively hit by a cruise missile aimed from Middle America.

Hanson also comments on two nations:

The Geraldine Ferraro Democratic Vice Presidential nominee appointment was an inspired stroke of genius that advanced the cause of feminism; Palin’s was tawdry tokenism.

And the poverty of the legal culture:

Every Democratic Presidential and VP nominee of the last thirty years, with the exception of Al Gore (law school drop out), has been a lawyer .... The Republicans, at least, understood that legal training is not a prerequisite for the Presidency (one in law doesn’t build things, grow, defend, or create anything).

And race:

Bottom line: expect more of the race card, especially if Palin gives the Republicans a bounce after the convention—and anyone who objects to it will be preemptively charged—of course—with racism.

Read it all.

A CONVERSATION I’D LOVE TO HEAR

Reporter: “Governor Palin, do you know who is the Prime Minister of ….”

Gov. Palin (interrupting): “Let’s hold it for a moment. Do you know who the General Counsel for the Department of Transportation is?”

Reporter: “Uh, no … but I can Google it.”

Gov. Palin: “So can I. If you want to ask ‘have you quit beating your husband questions,’ I have answers to match. Next question, please.”

It not a stretch to believe the next media attack will include some kind of “gotcha” question. Governor Palin (and Senator McCain) need to be prepared with “gotcha” responses.

[UPDATE 9/8/2008] I posted first, but Jim Treacher did it better.

ENGLISH LESSON

On my 60th birthday, I got a gift certificate from my wife. The certificate paid for a visit to a shaman living on a nearby reservation who was rumored to have a wonderful cure for erectile dysfunction.

After being persuaded, I drove to the reservation, handed my ticket to the shaman, and wondered what I was in for. The old man slowly, methodically produced a potion, handed it to me, and with a grip on my shoulder, warned, "This is powerful medicine and it must be respected. You take only a teaspoonful and then say '1-2- 3.' When you do that, you will be more potent than you have ever been in your life and you can perform as long as you want."

I was encouraged. As he walked away, I turned and asked, "How do I stop the medicine from working?"

"Your partner must say '1-2-3-4,'" the shaman responded. "But when she does, the medicine will not work again until the next full moon."

I was eager to see if it worked I went home, showered, shaved, took a spoonful of the medicine, and then invited my wife to join me in the bedroom. When she came in, I took off my clothes and said, "1-2-3!"

Immediately, I was the manliest of men.

My wife was excited and began throwing off her clothes. And then she asked, "What was the 1-2-3 for?"

And that, boys and girls, is why we should never end our sentences with a preposition.

SARAH PALIN REACTION

From Jonah Goldberg:

She was put on this earth to do two things: kill caribou and kick butt. She's all out of caribou.

Via Don Surber. Thanks.

HOCKEY MOM

Governor Palin's response to a briefing on the facts of life in a national political campaign:

"Do you know what they say the difference is between a hockey mom and a Pit Bull?"

"A hockey mom wears lipstick."

Via Bill Kristol on the Weekly Standard weblog. Read the whole thing.

A HURRICANE COMES TO LOUISANA

And nothing happened – other than a few hundred idiots masquerading as “newsmen” grandstanding in front of the camera.

THE BLOGOSPHERE COMMENTS ON SARAH PALIN FOR VP

A random sampling of comments from the last few days:

"Obama complains of the price of arugula and Palin goes out and shoots her supper."

"Reporter: Mr. McCain, how do you respond to charges that Palin has no experience?
McCain: If Obama had as much experience as Ms. Palin, he'd be ready for the VP slot, too."

"Team Obama fights back with a new campaign pitch: 'Inexperience belongs at the TOP of the ticket!'"

From a commenter (PatMac) on Hot Air: “ Now this would make a great ad - McCain looking into the camera and talking about people criticizing Palin for her lack of experience. McCain could then do a quick synopsis of her experience (Mayor, governor, business owner, reformer, etc.) and then admit the only thing lacking is community organizer.”

"Perhaps, as John McCain pondered his vice-presidential selection, he recalled the advice of Margaret Thatcher: 'In politics if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.'”

From Jim Treacher: "The biggest difference, as I see it, between Sarah Palin and Barack Obama is that 'one of them is little more than an elegant, attractive, dare I say sexy piece of eye candy. The other one kills her own food.'”

And from blogger Mark Swanson: “I think we can all agree that Palin's pick of an experienced statesman like John McCain to head her ticket shows that she is much better prepared to be VP than Biden who is trying to thrust an unqualified youngster who was a do-nothing state legislator before being elected to the Senate where he put in a few months of attendance before going AWOL to run for president.”

WHY NOT SARAH PALIN FOR VEEP?

All on the Left, and some few on the Right, are a-twitter about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s lack of foreign policy experience, being only a “single heartbeat” away from the presidency. I’m of a different mind.

I live just outside the Washington DC beltway, and work inside the beltway. Foreign policy experts are a dime a dozen here; foreign policy experts with diametrically opposed opinions are two for a quarter on any street corner.

When I go to the polls to vote, I look for three things: conviction, courage, and common sense.

Conviction – a coherent moral and ethical philosophy that captures his or her world view.

Courage – the ability to stand up and speak out for his or her convictions.

Common sense – the ability to weigh competing opinions enroute to a decision; more succintly, a finely-tuned BS detector.

From what I’ve read so far, Gov. Palin has all three.

Experience is vastly overrated. As I see it, three or four years of increasingly responsible experience is a bit more valuable that one year of experience repeated 20 times.

FAIR TAX/EMBEDDED TAX/VALUE-ADDED TAX

After reading both the Fair Tax books, I’ve never quite understood how the “embedded taxes” in the purchase price of an item would be replaced by the Fair Tax.

Now, I don’t dispute that there are embedded taxes in every purchase I make. Anyone with even a modest amount of common sense understands that all taxes - corporate income taxes, capital gains taxes, employer social security taxes, and so on - are eventually paid by the consumer.

But to suggest that these embedded taxes will magically go away with the Fair Tax is disingenuous at best. They will be reduced, to be sure, but go away? Nonsense.

A small example is in order. Consider a consultant, an occupation for which I have some small ambition post-retirement. As a consultant, I charge my customer a fee, say $100/hour, which includes the 23% Fair Tax. Thus I take home for my labor and expertise $77, right?

Not so. For I have to reduce my income by my overhead expenses, the cost of electricity, the cost of the computer, pencils, paper, internet access, etc., ad nauseum, all of which I’ve had to pay the Fair Tax on. Those costs are embedded in the fee I charge my customers.

Large businesses and other commercial entities that buy in bulk might not pay the Fair Tax on these business-related purchases, knowing that the tax will be collected on the final product offered for sale, but for a small business/independent contractor who buys in small quantities from the local office supply store, I doubt that such a distinction is possible.

So some level of embedded tax is inevitable.

[UPDATE 9/6/08] The Nightfly (comment below) notes that “since the fair tax only applies to retail commerce, you won't owe tax on the contract work you do for other businesses.” I agree: intermittent work such as I contemplated in the post would probably be considered temporary employment not subject to the Fair Tax.

He continues: “Whether or not you choose to pay sales taxes on your business supplies, if the difference has no bearing on your fee, then it will be an expense to your customers regardless of whether that part of your fee technically falls into the category of embedded tax or not.” And that was my essential point – that the sales tax I paid is ultimately passed to the consumer, irrespective of whether it’s technically considered an expense or an embedded tax.

This is a minor bump in the road to a Fair Tax. Most embedded taxes will in fact disappear, but it’s foolish to believe that all will.