Politics

Why do I suspect Dino Rossi wouldn’t have had a problem with felons voting in the Washington governor’s race if he had won that last recount? Apparently he does now, though. Here’s a previous entry on this subject.

Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a very rich man, talks about taking advantage of the broadcast flag in a way its proponents probably don’t like to think about. :) BTW, that is a blog he’s writing.

Great, now the AARP is going to be attacked by the same consultants who came up with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The reason: The AARP doesn’t want the Administration’s Social Security “reform” plan. Given recent events, I wonder how long it will take before someone finds out there is federal money being spent on this campaign? Update: Geez, it gets even worse. Nice to see our major political issues being defined by such a grassroots organization. (Dismantle Social Security! Drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge! For the Seniors!) ...

The more I heard about “Gannon’s” story, the more I thought it had to be made up. But, then again, I would have thought that about using taxpayer money to pay columnists to support your agenda as well. If we spent the 90’s ragging on the Clinton Administration for mysteriously finding files years after they were needed, then you’d think we’d have more time for what’s turning into a political/media scandal. ...

More North Korean stuff. This time, it’s a fascinating gallery of governmental propaganda art lionizing the Great Leader, Kim Il Sung, and the Great Mother, Kim Jeong-Sook. Link courtesy of Boing Boing, which points out the Norman Rockwell-ness of at least one of the pictures. ( Freedom of Speech is turned into Criticizing and Exposing Collaborators.)

I thought they had already announced that they had them? Maybe not.

The Christian Science Monitor describes a novel approach to dealing with Al Qaeda in Yemen. “If you can convince us that your ideas are justified by the Koran, then we will join you in your struggle,” Hitar told the militants. “But if we succeed in convincing you of our ideas, then you must agree to renounce violence.” I like the idea of the theological contest. I hope it continues to be effective. ...

I’ll agree we could all use a little more liberty and freedom in this world. I’ve written on the Churchill case before, and as I’ve said, I believe UC would be well within their rights to remove him as a professor. It’s not a universally held view, and Volokh comes up with some good arguments for greater academic freedom than UC is granting in this case. (I linked to Left2Right, which links to Volokh, partially because the comments are pretty good there, and partially because I’m having trouble with Volokh’s permalinks. Can’t figure out why.) ...

Interesting about those annuities. They make sense, from the standpoint of forcing folks to behave as if they were still on Social Security Classic™, but I suspect the intent is largely the same as the earlier investment accounts: To shove more money into the corporate sector. (I’m just surprised that none of it is going to Big Oil yet.) Even from a “conservative” philosophical standpoint, the private accounts plan I’ve heard so far seems like a primary purpose is to move tax money into the private sector. After all, the “It’s your money and you know best how to deal with it” argument only makes sense if we were free to simply not pay that portion of our Social Security tax and use the money however we pleased. However, does anyone think the social cost of such a plan — taking care of those who frittered their money away — wouldn’t far outweigh the cost of our current plan of enforced frugality and wealth redistribution? ...

“A manly embrace…” Yep, like Al and Tipper. :)