Staying Home

That's what I'll be doing today.

Choices, Choices

McCain says Obama wants to be redistributor in chief, while he wants to be commander in chief.

Oh my. Shall we not be spared?

Government Is Already an Income-Transfer Machine

Isn’t it a little late for John McCain and the Republicans to start worrying about government redistribution of wealth? McCain claims to be alarmed by Barack Obama’s tax plan, which would tax upper-income people in order to provide tax cuts to lower- and middle-income people, many of whom don’t pay income taxes. McCain and running-mate Sarah Palin call this socialism.

But the criticism is odd considering all the redistribution McCain has proposed in his presidential campaign and has supported during his long career.

The rest of this week's op-ed, "Government Is Already an Income-Transfer Machine," is at The Future of Freedom website.

An Echo, Not a Choice

Republicans talk about the burdens of regulation, which leaves the impression that they are for free markets. But this is wrong. Free markets are free of more than regulation; they are also free of subsidies, privileges, and guarantees. Lightening up on regulation may please business, but if it is done while keeping the subsidies, privileges, and the guarantees in place, it is not a move toward the free market.

The rest of this week's op-ed, "An Echo, Not a Choice," is at The Future of Freedom Foundation website.

Into the Bog

It's still hard to tell if Joe the Plumber would pay more taxes under Obama or McCain. I've heard both sides argued. Whatever. It's a phony argument because McCain would just borrow whatever money he needs that can't be raised in taxes. Someone who frets about $18 billion a year in earmarks but relishes spending $11 billion a month in Iraq isn't going to be watching the taxpayers' interests very closely.

To me the real story about Joe the Plumber was Obama's reply to him that "spread[ing] the wealth around" would be good for the country. We haven't heard that phrase in a long time, and there's something refreshingly honest about it. If we look close, we'll see that McCain isn't against spreading the wealth. Look at his mortgage plan -- his proposal to keep home values artificially high by buying at face value all mortgages in which the amount owed exceeds the appraised value of the home. Nice deal for the banks. He would then reduce the amount of the loans and the interest rate. The taxpayers would pay the bills. Sounds like spreading the wealth to me.

To hell with all "legal" plunderers.

Sorry, Sorry Performance

John McCain couldn't even coherently explain his proposal for health insurance! I ran his "explanation" back on my DVR. It made no sense! "Do the math," he said. Based on what he said, you can't do the the math! Arrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh.

Good Maverick, Bad Maverick

Answer me this: why do those crowds at Sarah Palin rallies go nuts every time she invokes McCain's maverick record, when his quintessential maverick achievement is McCain-Feingold, which restricts free political speech?

The Debate

Some cable commentators, Joe Scarborough, for one, think Sarah Palin deep down is a libertarian. It must be really deep down because there was no sign of it last night. Her explanation for the economic turmoil is "greed and corruption on Wall Street," which she promised McCain and she would clean up. You couldn't even tell from her remarks that Fannie and Freddie were creatures of the government. She pointed out that McCain favored tough regulation of them years ago.

Cross-posted at Liberty & Power.

In Lockstep

It's nice to see that both the maverick and change agent are in lockstep with the Wall Street bailout. Meet the new boss...

McCain for President

No, I'm not endorsing him! I'm predicting he will win. In elections I usually predict wrong. It's a hex. We're all doin' what we can.

We Will Be Fooled Again

It is appalling that Barack Obama apparently will go through this campaign without once tearing into George II's Unitary Executive Theory, under which a president may launch preventive wars unilaterally, eavesdrop and gather information on people without warrant, issue signing statements announcing he'll ignore parts of legislation he doesn't like, send detainees to foreign lands to be tortured, declare detainees "enemy combatants" and hold them in perpetuity, etc., etc., etc., -- all without check by another branch of the state. (John McCain seems to have no problem with this theory either.)

I wonder if Obama doesn't want the smorgasbord removed before he's gotten to the table. The Fuhrer Principle must be enticing to any presidential candidate.

Some peace candidate. "We won't be fooled again"? Sure we will.

McCain's Self-Righteous Fakery

If John McCain keeps up that self-righteous fakery about wanting to be our servant, we’re in for two rather tedious months until election day.

First of all, he also says he wants to be our leader. How can he be both our leader and our servant? We know what’s really going on here. The servant shtick is phony humility intended to soften us up. He has no intention of being our humble servant and every intention of being our know-it-all Great Leader, our commander in chief.

The rest of this week's op-ed, "McCain's Self-Righteous Fakery," is at The Future of Freedom Foundation website.

Servant or Leader?

John McCain says he wants to be our servant. But he also says he is uniquely fit to lead. Which is it? We know very well which it is. Just ask who will be giving orders and who will be taking them.

Some Maverick

John McCain and his supporters portray him as the quintessential maverick. What was his paradigmatic act of maverickism? It was McCain-Feingold, which enacted draconian restrictions on political speech before elections. At the time, the bill was harshly opposed -- even by many Republicans -- as an "incumbent-protection act." In the floor debate on the bill, supporters complained about negative advertising by interest groups, which usually target incumbents.

This is how a maverick behaves? Memories are short in politics.

Political Correctness, Conservative-Style

Conservatives mock Political Correctness as an attempt to banish unapproved thoughts and utterances. Well, it seems conservatives have their own list of forbidden statements.

Looked what happened when Wesley Clark opined that McCain is not qualified to be president by virtue of the fact that he was shot down while riding in a bomber over North Vietnam. What should have been taken as something too obvious to require stating was instead treated as an accusation that McCain didn't "serve his country." (Actually he didn't. But he did serve the hack running the White House at the time.)

Poor Wesley Clark -- nother PC victim. Even Barack Obama had to distance himself from the comment. Many more things could be said about McCain, such as: There's nothing heroic about dropping bombs on the infrastructure of people that never lifted a finger against you. If he had not invaded North Vietnam, he would have skipped those unpleasant years in the Hanoi Hilton. But then, he wouldn't be running for president now, would he?

Oh, Shut Up Already

McCain vowed recently that "I will never surrender in Iraq, my friends. I will never surrender."

As if ending the invasion and occupation of a country that did Americans no harm -- acts that have spawned terrible hatred and a passion of vengeance -- would be anything like surrender. On the contrary, it would be liberating for Americans and Iraqis alike.

McCain's the One

All you need to know about John McCain:



One more thing you should know: he was bombing civilian infrastructure in Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam, a country that had done nothing to him or his country, when he was shot down and taken prisoner in 1967.

There's a big difference between "hero" and "war hero."