STATE MIGRATION TRENDS, 1993-2008: From Blue States to Red States. Instapundit comments “People tend to travel in the direction of greater freedom.”

Yes, and then they tend to demand the same services that led to the restrictions and tax rates they fled from.

MALLARD FILLMORE forgot MSNBC.

PALIN HATRED and status anxiety. Read the comments too.

AN ERIC CANTOR email from the Minority Whip’s YOUCUT project:

The current Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, is now considering raising taxes on American families and small businesses, many of which are already struggling to pay the bills. While she is talking about raising your taxes, over 97,000 government employees haven't even bothered to pay theirs - owing almost $1 billion in unpaid taxes.

This is simply unacceptable and the YouCut movement spoke out - this week's winning item, championed by Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, requires the collection of unpaid taxes from federal employees.

We brought your voice to the House floor - every Republican voted with you to hold these government employees accountable just like every other citizen. Unfortunately, 226 of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle voted against it; proving once again how out of touch with the American people they really are.

From the Washington Post: Capitol Hill employees owed $9.3 million in back taxes last year ....

ANOTHER CHURCH MESSAGE seen on our Sunday day trip around Virginia: "Vitamin for Christians - B1."

LIBERALISM DEFINED. As we drove around Virginia on our Sunday day trip, I spotted a car whose bumper stickers perfectly exemplified the liberal mindset. Right next to a
“Coexist” bumper sticker was a second one that said “My horn is broken. Watch for extended finger.”

AFTER 19 MONTHS, the nation knows Obama a lot better than they did in 2008, and they see an inexperienced and incompetent executive who has a dedication to an agenda of arrogance and top-down control. Had the media done its job in 2007 and 2008, this would have been no surprise — and Obama wouldn’t be President, either.

EXCITED ABOUT RECYCLING? Not.

BARACK OBAMA, President Guy. Promises made, promises kept.

IS [NEW YORK CITY MAYOR] MICHAEL BLOOMBERG "to blame for the deaths of the 18 Muslim men in Indian-controlled Kashmir who rioted over reports that someone in America burned the Koran?" In a word, yes.

WHITE HOUSE INSIDER reports on Obama.

(07 September): The president is losing it.
(15 September): The president needs to grow up.
(18 September): What have we done?

Linked from Instapundit, with this warning: “Given the sourcing, I wouldn’t put too much credence in it.” I’m not quite as skeptical as Reynolds, simply for the reason that much of what is said of President Obama in the blog posts is consistent with my own observations over the last two years.

I’d like to be wrong, but ... these feel right.

TELL ME IT'S NOT SO: Professor calls fellow academics ‘sanctimonious bigots’.

A LABOR OF LOVE

On this Labor Day, like most Americans, I come to praise labor, not indulge in it. Has there ever been a people that speechified more about the joys and satisfactions of work and the work ethic, yet was so enamored of labor-saving devices?

Yes, it’s 2 weeks late, but a Paul Greenberg column is not to be missed.

WHAT WE’RE SEEING is a rejection of the Obama Democrats' big-government policies. The president and his party thought that in times of economic distress most voters would be supportive of or at least amenable to a vast expansion of the size and scope of government.

They were wrong.

DEMOCRATS HAVE PROVEN OVER AND OVER that they can truly run the one thing that matters in politics.

PRIVATIZE SOCIAL SECURITY? Yes, please. Common sense is making a comeback.