It looks obvious

Joe the plumber is really OK. If you expecting inarticulate and ignorant person you are going to be disappointed. I really enjoyed listen to him - he is eloquent, understand the issues and represent his point of view very well:

And by the way - when I’ll read the story of Robin Hood to my girls he will not be a hero for the wealth redistribution but for protecting human rights. Furthermore I don’t think that any politician can boast as Robin Hood while using the coercion monopoly of the state to force wealth distribution - if they want to be Robin Hood they are welcome to hide in Sherwood forest and take the risks he took!

Well I shouldn’t be surprise that someone that call paying more taxes patriotism invents new history, but yet I am. I have the feeling Biden knew that FDR was not the President in 1929, and that when he was a candidate he campaigned with pretty conservative agenda - and still he thought that it will be a good idea to say something like this:

“When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, ‘Look, here’s what happened,’” Barack Obama’s running mate recently told the “CBS Evening News.”

And although he got the history completely wrong, and the conclusions are as wrong as the facts - I don’t think it will damage his campaign even a little bit. And that is the real shame!

With the stock market continue it is diving today it might not be popular, it might be not popular but I’m still praising greed. I have to credit McCain and say that his attacks on selfishness and the so called greed predate the current crisis, but it doesn’t change the fact that he is no better in this respect than his opponent (some might even argue that he is worse). What I found as more offensive, and stupid, is the believe that the regulatory work McCain did, as a member of the commerce committee, had any positive contribution to the creation of the BlackBerry.

It was much more thanks to selfish greed than any regulatory work that contributed to any invention, including the BlackBerry and the day that McCain will start to grasp that will be the first day I might consider him as the lesser of two evils.

Watching Sarah Palin’s interview made me wonder doubt how intelligent she is. I disagree with many statements that she made, and I think many of them were the results of extreme ignorance and very simplistic understanding of the world. If I was her opponent I would be glad to use a lot of what she said to discredit her as a serious candidate for the role of Vice President. Although, as a side note, one might argue that intelligence was not a qualifying litmus test for the role of VP before - nor for the President.

But when I read this criticism, arguing that Palin isn’t a women because she didn’t pass some ideological test is not only stupid but also offensive. Even when I was young I always consider those who dared other to prove their masculinity as stupid, I consider those who daring women, or any other groups, to abide by some strict ideological line to prove their physical being flat out stupid. But it is worse - those who appointed themselves to be the gender guardian - in the name of equality and rights - are too often the worse in breaking social barrier that should have never existed:

Her greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman. The Republican party’s cynical calculation that because she has a womb and makes lots and lots of babies (and drives them to school! wow!) she speaks for the women of America, and will capture their hearts and their votes, has driven thousands of real women to take to their computers in outrage. She does not speak for women; she has no sympathy for the problems of other women, particularly working class women.

Wouldn’t it be simply smarter to say that Palin is wrong on the women right to choose, she is wrong on foreign policy (or maybe wrong would be to generous in her case) and wrong on any other list of issues?

Not only that the LP choose a plain conservative as its nominee for presidential candidate they also attached to him a complete idiot as running mate. I was hopping to support an LP candidate, but thanks to the poor choices this party insist on making I am left with the “no vote” option.

The MSNBC coverage of the Rally for the Republic is very interesting. It starts with the usual smirking and moving to much more serious discussion about the magnitude and importance of the Ron Paul phenomena.

Ron Paul was never in a real position to win the Republican nomination, the significance of his campaign was in its ability to trigger a movement to restore the ideas of limited government and individual freedom. Ron Paul was able to built a coalition, and naturally I don’t agree with some parts of this coalition, and this together with continuation efforts to establish a real movement are the real success of the Ron Paul Campaign.

One have to wonder if political campaign is the only event were two man argue who has less and smaller. If this is the case, and it is so different from normal human behavior, what does it say about the entire process credibility, and those who playing it?

Obama’s promise to eliminate the federal income tax on earning of $50,000 or less for senior citizens has drawn obvious criticism:

If you’re a senior citizen and make less than $50,000 a year, Barack Obama has a deal for you: the rest of your life free of federal income tax.

Sounds appealing, right? Maybe to many seniors. But tax policy experts in Washington are giving it bad reviews. They see it as another subsidy for senior citizens, who already get federal help through Social Security and Medicare and often have economic advantages over other demographic groups.

Seniors typically have paid off their mortgages. Many have investments and usually don’t pay taxes on their Social Security benefits. The kids are usually grown, so they’re not saddled with day care or college costs.

“The odds are the retired folks - they’re getting pensions, they’re getting Social Security, they have investment assets, they own a house - so … they’re better off than somebody who is 30 or 40 years younger who’s trying to buy a house (and) trying to start saving,” said Clint Stretch, managing principal of tax policy for Deloitte Tax.

While the criticism makes sense - economically and morally - it failed to address the main issue on hand. This proposal has nothing to do with social justice, nor with wise tax policy and have everything to do with pandering potential voters. After all older voters votes in higher percentage than younger voters and bribing them, while pretending to care about social justice, is practical. And since Obama didn’t care about social justice, morality or any of those unimportant things, his proposal needs to be evaluated for what it intended to achieve - get the votes.

The question of how to limit the power of senior citizens, or any other large interest group, from robbing the rest of us is completely different topic.

Via tjic

Dear John Ensign,

I received your letter as the chairman of the Republican Presidential Task Force and I read it with great level of amazement. I wonder how disconnected is the GOP if you produce letters like this.

I have no interest in helping electing the presumed nominee, nor most of what the GOP has to offer for the Senate or the Congress. Since the GOP took over you betray the promise to reduce the scope of government, reduce our involvement overseas and to promote individual liberties. Instead the gang that took over was busy increasing the deficit, increasing the scope of government into areas no democrat would ever dream to do and set a record on abuses of human rights. The GOP leadership ,including you - Senator Ensign, used “conservative values” as a mockery and excuse to prevent other from making their own choices about their own life.

In the last eight years the GOP gave its active support for one of the most serious attacks on human rights in the history of the US. Using the terror treat as an excuse you helped - by legislation and executive orders - promoting strong executive branch and a set of practices that limits our civil liberties. Calling yourself a Conservative, pretending to follow Barry Goldwater, is a very sad joke.

I still believe, the naive that I am, that the GOP has a chance to reform itself. This is why I joined the Republican Liberty Caucus. The only hope the GOP has to become relevant again is by returning to the basics of promoting Individual liberty.

At this point you probably understand that I will not help - not with donation nor with volunteering action - your mission of electing Senate majority. However I really want to take this opportunity for the nice picture you included in the envelope. We intend to use the high quality picture, of one of the worst Presidents in the history of the US, for playing darts.

I guess I’m not the only one that was not impress with Obama’s visit in Israel; after all it was as useful as any campaign visit usually is, none at all.

On the other hand Obama deserve some credit: unlike his rival he didn’t confuse between the different factions in the Islam and their long rivalry….