Helping Obama

Obama orated:

"I don't know anyone who benefits when...an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers."

Three suggestions:
1. the illegal workers: go from zero income to non-zero income
2. the employer: saves money on wages
3. consumers: pay lower prices
(For outsourcing, replace "illegal workers" with "foreign workers.")
(For automation, replace "hiring illegal workers" with "installing robots" and omit #1 since robots don't care about wages.)

How To Achieve Energy Independence

Ban energy imports tomorrow.

There. Happy?

Current Candidate Grades

McCain-
economy: C
foreign policy: D
civil liberties: D

Obama-
economy: D
foreign policy: C+
civil liberties: C

Disclaimer: these grades are based on Vox Politico's current assessment only.

Boon To Pickens

There's an interesting article at Popular Mechanics about some lesser-known aspects of "the Pickens Plan," that energy initiative/commercial that's all over screens lately.

"Pickens is in the planning stages of a $1.5 billion initiative to pump billions of gallons of water from an ancient aquifer beneath the Texas Panhandle and build pipelines to ship them to thirsty cities such as Dallas...a continuation of the drought impacting large portions of the United States could turn Pickens into something of a water baron. His yet-to-be-built pipeline would follow the same 250-mile corridor as electric lines carrying power from his wind farms."

An important detail here: "Specifically, Pickens asked Congress to extend a 2005 law intended to speed up the creation of energy corridors, and to give him control over any transmission lines he builds for wind-generated power."

I have some things I'd like Congress to give me control over, too. I promise something good for the general public would come out of it. That's not a legally binding promise, of course.

Update (10/7): Pickens's new commercial encourages viewers to ask of political candidates: "What's their plan for cutting foreign oil imports?" and "How soon can we get started?" Let's see, a political plan to cut imports--what does that usually look like? Pickens says he is dead serious about this. Good choice of words.

The high cost of bitterness

A colleague recently pointed me to Coyote Blog. There I found this short entry about a mysterious power of price changes. Minutes later I was gathering some newsprint for my parrot's cage when I came across an interesting example of this dynamic--in our leftweekly. Raise your mugs!

Good Price, Bad Price

Are high gasoline prices bad but high home prices good? Why?

Does the governor of New York want prostitution decriminalized?

Governor Eliot Spitzer is in some trouble for, apparently, hiring a prostitute. Does he (and his supporters) think prison is the right societal response to prostitution? Or does he (and his supporters) now think selling sex should be legal? Or, a third option: does he (and his supporters) think the law is right except that it should not apply to certain special individuals? To summarize, which of the following does Gov. Spitzer (and you-know-who) favor?:

a. legalization for all [here's video of George Carlin's take--with two cuss words in first 12 seconds]
b. exemptions for some [insert Spitzer's legal defense team's statements here]
c. imprisonment for Eliot [seems unlikely, but then again...]

'Tardette bile eruption takes form of endorsement

Big surprise. A bland, connect-the-dots, yet successfully putrid piece boosting Ron Paul's Congressional primary opponent issues from 'Tardette. It's unclear whether this sad little crew will ever get over witnessing a phenomenal, long shot, but burgeoning challenge to correct social regimentation. They may realize that Ron Paul's run this past year has been, in bizspeak, almost all "upside" for his supporters. This would explain anti-Paul types being keen to help find some "downside."

Is murder unconstitutional?

In her opening statement at tonight's Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton stated:

I want to stop the health insurance companies from discriminating against people because they're sick. You know, it's unconstitutional to discriminate on the basis of race or gender or ethnic origin or religion, but it's okay to discriminate against sick people and we're gonna end that, because it's time we said, "no more."

[Applause]

So, is it reasonable to ask which part of the Constitution forbids private parties, like insurance companies, from discriminating "on the basis of race or gender or ethnic origin or religion?" And, if that section doesn not turn up, is it reasonable to question whether Hillary Clinton has a firm command of the basics of our founding document? Or maybe it was a simple slip-up. Maybe Hillary Clinton does not equate laws with the Constitution. Perhaps there is some other explanation. It would be nice to know the answer. [Disclaimer: if the U.S. Constitution is merely an antiquated document preserving historically interesting but outdated ideas, please disregard these questions.]

Bad experience

Much is made of McCain's vast experience, Clinton's modest or non-traditional experience, and Obama's comparatively thin experience. But quality, in the case of choosing a president (which, today, has so much more power than quaint American presidents of the past), looms large. If it's bad experience, it wouldn't seem to be very beneficial to a candidate's resume. Quite the opposite.

Put defending preemptive war, promoting unconstitutional legislation, and pursuing seemingly endless increases in the scope and scale of government in the "bad experience" column.

Not the Taliban

It's worth seriously asking what kind of regime we are supporting in Afghanistan. Consider the frightening case of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, sentenced to death for distributing a report critical of treatment of women in some Islamic societies. From Wired:

He was tried by a sharia court (which oversees Islamic religious law) and was not allowed legal representation, according to news reports. The Afghan Senate passed a motion this week supporting the sentence, according to the British newspaper The Independent.

More...

Fourth Be$t Day Ever

Paul seems to be headed for his fourth $1 million+ fundraising day:



He raised more than any other Republican last quarter.

Three little "typos"

Yes, just a few trivial errors in today's New York Times Politics Blog entry about Ron Paul's new adviser.

#1: The first time he is mentioned (on the fourth line of the entry), he is given the wrong first name. The name is Peter, not Paul, Schiff. Oops.

#2: Grammatically, the third paragraph states that Peter Schiff is the author of "The Federal Mafia" and other books. He's not. His father, Irwin, is. Whoops.

#3: The author states that Ron Paul "wants to eliminate income and estate taxes and taxes on tips, imposing instead a consumption tax," when, in fact, Paul has repeatedly explained (on television and elsewhere) that he does not want to replace the income tax with a consumption tax nor any other new tax. Umm...

Just nitpicks really. I'm sure the rest is fine.

AP's Selective Memory

"Texas Rep. Ron Paul has made no move to withdraw even though he scores in single digits in voting." - Associated Press, 1/30/08

"Nevada - 1797 of 1797 Precincts Reporting...Paul , Ron...14%" - Associated Press, undated article

"Iowa results...Ron Paul 10 percent" - Associated Press, 1/4/08

Wait, what?

Are we really going to add to our $9,200,000,000,000 national debt to send checks to every couple earning less than $174,000, etc.!? It's looking that way, sadly. What's next, self-esteem classes for supermodels? More cold water here.