It's not just a gimmick -- it's a destructive gimmick. Woo-hoo!

The Federal gas tax is about 18 cents a gallon; given the way prices have skyrocketed, 18 cents is a drop in the bucket  -- and given that it's being suggested by two particiular presidential candidates -- who won't be in a position to make it happen for nine months, by which time gas may well be even higher and the effect even a smaller drop.

It's the "feel-good" silly suggestion of the season.

Plus -- it's not like the federal gas tax is just crazy money that's being burned in big bonfires beside the Potomac. It goes toward federal highway work -- maintaining / expanding / repairing roads, bridges, non-trivial stuff like that. So either any tax "holiday" will have to be short-lived, or else there won't be any road for folks to be driving on ...

They'd be just as well off printing money and sending out more rebate checks.

Filed under :: Elections 2008 :: Politics & Law
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I've been intentionally kind of quiet over the Democratic Primaries, aside from offering up my preference and support for Obama. My reasons for that are both pragmatic and philosophical:

1. I distinctly prefer Obama to Clinton, for reasons I will go into after the campaign is over and Obama is the nominee (he said, hopefully).
2. I still prefer Clinton to McCain; unlike some folks (who, I hope, are more posturing than honest), if Clinton gets the nomination, I will be supporting her over the GOP candidate, not sulking and refusing to vote.

While #1 suggests I should talk about about Obama over Clinton, or complain about some of the things Clinton and her campaign have been doing and saying, #2 suggests that to do so will, should she get the nomination, only aid comfort and support to McCain. Since I'm more interested in seeing either Democrat get in for 2008 than McCain, I (unlike some others, it seems) would rather not do so.

While that smacks a bit of the Democratic variant of the Eleventh Commandment, there is a time and place for everything. Bashing other Democrats right now is counterproductive to my goal in November. Time enough for that retrospective bashing later on.

Filed under :: Elections 2008
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 Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot.

Talk show host Rush Limbaugh is sparking controversy again after he made comments that appear to call for riots in Denver during the Democratic National Convention this summer.

He said the riots would ensure a Democrat is not elected as president, and his listeners have a responsibility to make sure it happens.

"Riots in Denver, the Democrat Convention would see to it that we don't elect Democrats," Limbaugh said during Wednesday's radio broadcast. He then went on to say that's the best thing that could happen to the country.

Yeah. Riots are better than ... I mean ... yeesh, words fail me.

Several callers called in to the radio show to denounce Limbaugh's comments, when he later stated, "I am not inspiring or inciting riots, I am dreaming of riots in Denver."

This is not your father's "I have a dream" speech.

Limbaugh said with massive riots in Denver, which he called part of "Operation Chaos," the people on the far left would look bad.

On behalf of Poul Anderson, who has an excellent book titled Operation Chaos, go suck an egg, Rush.

"There won't be riots at our convention," Limbaugh said of the Republican National Convention. "We don't riot. We don't burn our cars. We don't burn down our houses. We don't kill our children. We don't do half the things the American left does."

No ... you just dream about it ...

Filed under :: Elections 2008 :: Fourth Estate
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I can't believe March is over. Yeesh.

1. Wiki Woman - An article on the Wikipedia wars on both Obama and Clinton's pages.
2. Most Awesomely Bad Military Patches 10 | Danger Room from Wired.com - Tenth in a series of stunningly improper / un-PC / goofy "morale patches" for various military organizations. This page has a list of the previous entries. I don't know whether to be appalled or to giggle or both.
3. Triviagasm: Far Out SciFi Worlds of Sid and Marty Krofft - I loved the Kroft stuff as a kid. Well, some of them. I was a big Bugaloos fan and Lidsville follower, And, of course, Land of the Lost rocked. Most of the others, though, I never got into.
4. Writing for Firefly and Battlestar - From the only person who did both, Jane Espenson.
5. Exchange: HBO's 'John Adams' (Parts 1 and 2) - A discussion between historians about the mini-series. I'm going to revisit this once I've read the whole thing.
6. Commentary: Inside the Twisted Mind of the Security Professional - A Bruce Schneier discussion of how security professionals see things differently -- and why maybe we should (sometimes) do the same.
7. Pulp of the Day - A pulp magazine cover a day -- complete with caption contest. Cool.

Filed under :: Blogging :: Elections 2008 :: Homeland Security :: Media :: Media - TV :: Potpourri
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1. The Mysterious Case of Ohio's Voting Machines | Threat Level from Wired.com - e-voting "irregularities" may be a lot easier than normal voting, but they tend to be (so far) more obvious than "old school" voter fraud. Speaking of which (and I'm sure you'll find this shocking): Whistleblower: Voting Machine Company Lied to Election Officials About Reliability of Machines | Threat Level from Wired.com.
2. Five Things We've Learned From D&D from 1UP.com - The influence of D&D on Video Games.
3. Obama on ‘Renewing the American Economy’ - New York Times - Inspirational and erudite? Yeesh. I can't imagine either Clinton or McCain talking about economic renewal and regulatory reform by putting it into an historical context.
4. YouTube - Under the Tusken Sun - Star Wars fun in the sun!
5. Anti-Emo Riots Break Out Across Mexico | The Underwire from Wired.com - Anti ... emo ... riots?
6. Earth Hour US - Earth Hour 2008 - Turn off your lights for an hour on Saturday night at 8 p.m. Doesn't say anything about turning off the computer or TV ...
7. Restaurant Names - Amusing restaurant names, that is. Or, rather, an academic paper about amusing restaurant names.
8. Speed Racer trailers and video clips on Yahoo! Movies - Go, Speed Racer, Go!

Filed under :: Elections 2008 :: Food & Drink - Restaurants :: Gaming :: Hi-Tech :: Media - Music :: Politics & Law :: Potpourri
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As the nomination race comes down to the wire, I keep hearing more and more rumblings about how the Democratic internecine warfare is likely to end up splitting the party and giving the election to McCain. Granted, there's still a lot of time and campaigning to go until November, but as both campaigns (though mostly Clinton's) keep slinging mud at each other, the Dems are facing going into the full blown election campaign with -- well -- a muddy candidate.

CNN at lunch was pointing to some opinion polls indicating not-insubstantial (probably election-swinging) minorities of Dems who say they'll vote for McCain if their favorite candidate doesn't get the nod. I think those numbers are exaggerated -- just as rhetoric about GOPers voting for Hillary if McCain got the nod was exaggerated -- but even if the votes don't shift, they may simply sit out, or at the least be tepid supporters ("guess I gotta hold my nose and vote for that Other Person"), neither of which will serve the Democratic nominee well.

Heck, I'll admit that even though I'll vote for Clinton before McCain in a heartbeat, I've seen too much of her not-very-nice side to do so with as few misgivings as I had at the caucuses back a few months. It will be more of a vote against (against GOP domination of the executive, against McCain's various flaws) than a vote for.

And, of course, those ill feelings and lack of enthusiasm will tend to spill over into Congressional races as well.

Ugh.

And, in many ways, the guilty party is primarily Clinton. The numbers make it highly unlilkely that she can catch Obama in delegates or popular vote count before the convention. The best she can hope for is for Obama to stumble, or to win an insiders fight over super-delegates at the Convention. Neither outcome helps the party, or the country, only her. (I'm discounting the conspiracy rumors that she's out to ruin Obama's chances against McCain, with an eye toward running herself again in 2012.)

Is she really that anxious to play spoiler, or to win a Pyrhhic battle but then lose the war? If so, that would seem an even greater indictment of her suitability to run the country.

Do the Clintons really want to risk becoming the Naders of 2008?
Shooting Herself in the Toe?
Democratic race over? Clinton doesn't think so
Is Al Gore the Answer? 

Filed under :: Elections 2008
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Well, if there's any justice and sensibility in America, the idiocy that Buchanan is driveling about the Obama speech on race ought to propel its orator into the White House.

A few choice bits:

Barack then listed black grievances and informed us what white America must do to close the racial divide and heal the country.

Actually, Obama did an amazing thing. Yes, he called on "white America" (I don't recall if he used that term, but, like Pat, let's pretend) to understand, and to follow through on that understanding.

But he didn't (though Pat seems to have missed this) let the black community off the hook. He takes it to task (as much as he takes anyone to task) for divisiveness and focus on injustices that blinds them to the good in this country, from people of all races and backgrounds.

Yeah, Pat seems to have missed that part. He managed to interpret it all as a call for more welfare and affirmative action, neither of which I heard Obama talk about.

But, then, Pat seems to have some odd ideas about America and the the black community:

First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

"Far from apologizing for slavery, let alone offering reparations, we should be charging Blacks for the privilege of being slaves, then being second-class citizens under Jim Crow laws for the vast majority of American history." Those aren't his words, to be sure, but that seems to be his message. 

Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America? Is it really white America’s fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?

Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?

Gosh, I'll be you if we really tried hard, we could figure out how both blacks and whites share responsibility for those statistics -- and, as Americans, how we share the responsibility to do something about them.

Buchanan hears a speech about reconciliation, about trying to end divisiveness, about acknowledging that racial divides have existed that all sides have participated in, and that all sides need to acknowledge and move on from -- and he manages to mold it into his prepackaged conceptions of "Blacks are criminals. Blacks are responsible for where they are in society. Blacks are welfare queens. Blacks are rioters. Blacks constantly have their hands out for tax dollars. Blacks always blame whites for their problems." He looks at Barack Obama, and sees Al Sharpton.

Or ... perhaps ... he's afraid that some folks might see something different.

(via BD) 

Filed under :: Elections 2008
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Well, no, not really. Or, not yet. But the Obama campaign is offering anyone who donates any amount by the end of March a chance to have dinner (with four other people) with the candidate. Which, I have to say, would be pretty keen.

An interesting statistic: in February, 94% of the donors to the Obama campaign gave $200 or less. The same was true for only 26% of Clinton donors, and 13% of McCain donors. Clinton has raised 60% of her funds from $1000+ donors; McCain 70%.

I'm not all that much of a populist, but I think that says something.

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NY Times coverage, including who did it, and when. Interesting that "training exercises" make it okay to access your relatives' passport files, but not a politician's.

InformationWeek notes that it wasn't a technological breach. The folks doing the peeking had full access rights to do so. Cool! The big gaps were that folks did it with no "need to know," and that their supervisors/management didn't report it up the food chain, and when they did it took way too long to notify the folks whose security was violated.

Meanwhile, Time notes that, right as all this was going on, the Bush Administration was granting access to these files to still more folks, for "counter-terrorism," border security, and anti-fraud (!)  purposes, including "Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Counter-Terrorism Center, 'foreign governments, and entities such as Interpol'" And I'm sure all of them will immediately report any unauthorized use.

What kind of personal information do these Passport Records actually contain? Contrary to what you might expect, the system doesn't have information about your entries into the U.S. (That's in a separate system run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that actually swipes your passport when you come into the country.) The State Department's records do, however, hold every application for a passport and copies of any supporting documents like birth or marriage certificates. That application has your address, Social Security number, phone number, the name and number of your emergency contact and your photograph. The records also have information on any attempts to change the status of your citizenship, which is what employees in the elder Bush Administration were suspected of looking for in Bill Clinton's records in 1992. A search by name or passport number can also dredge up other items that have been attached to the file, such as court orders, arrest warrants, financial reports and even medical reports, according to the public State Department records.

Filed under :: Elections 2008 :: Hi-Tech :: Homeland Security
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From the most insightful political commentators of this era.

Oh, and in case you missed it in the comments ... this.

Filed under :: Elections 2008 :: Fourth Estate :: Media - TV
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