This Is Alabama Football

After stomping evil Tennessee 29-9, shrugging off an upset prediction like the death of an unknown second cousin of a stepfather, and now with an 8-0 record (5-0 in the SEC), nothing but Bryant-era class:

But all anybody wanted to talk about outside the Alabama locker room on Saturday night was the here and now. Sophomore middle linebacker Rolando McClain huffed when somebody brought up the fact that LSU had lost earlier in the day.

"We don't really care about LSU," McClain said. "We'll get to them whenever we play them. Right now, we'll enjoy this for 24 hours and get ready for next week."

If he sounds like Saban, you're right. This whole team is starting to sound like Saban, which means it's highly unlikely that anybody is going to catch Alabama napping.

Godspeed, and Roll Tide!

Ramirez

No On Prop 8

Superstitious twats are winning the money war on the fight to keep gay marriage legal in California (their own legislature voted to legalize gay marriage, Governor Terminator vetoed it, their supreme court ruled that discrimination is unconstitutional). The main culprits are Mormons, who are flooding the state with money to run deceitful ads saying that gays getting married is--somehow--dangerous, anti-marriage, and anti-equality. This from a religion that, just around 3 decades ago, discriminated against non-white races. But you can't expect rational responses from magically thinking dopes.

I have given money to the cause of keeping gay marriage legal in California. Fight the Mormons: give some too. Even $10 will help.

California can't lose this right: doing so will set us gays back a decade. And you don't want to see me in those clothes (what was I thinking?).

Why Not A Flat Tax?

This Presidential campaign has been rife with "I'll give tax cuts here" and "I'll give tax cuts here too and then some." As a single male, I'm disgusted: I never fit any of the qualifications. Why do I get nothing when others get tax cuts for irresponsible, annoying dumb shit like having children? I have no problem paying taxes; I do have a problem with deficits and debt.

So why not a flat tax? Increases for everyone when spending increases; decreases for everyone when spending decreases.

Not to be conspiratorial, but here's one reason why:

A new study based on unpublished Internal Revenue Service data shows the rich are different when it comes to paying taxes: They hide more of their income.

The previously unreported study estimates that taxpayers whose true income was between $500,000 and $1 million a year understated their adjusted gross incomes by 21% overall in 2001, compared to an 8% underreporting rate for those earning $50,000 to $100,000 and even lower rates for those earning less. (The "net misreporting rate" as the IRS calls it, includes both underreported income and inflated deductions.)

In all, because of their higher noncompliance rates, those with true incomes of $200,000 or more received 25% of all income, but accounted for 40% of net underreported income and 42% of underreported tax in 2001, the new analysis finds.

And what does that mean for us?

The Slemrod/Johns analysis uses unpublished data from special research audits the IRS conducted on a sample of 45,000 individual returns filed for 2001. It was the IRS' first such research effort since 1988, and it led the agency to estimate the 2001 gross "tax gap" at $345 billion.

That's half a Wall Street bail-out! In one year! Here's an idea: we all pay up fairly. Anyone with me? I remember him: I gave his campaign money over a decade ago...And where in the hell is Kemp?

Conservative Defence Of Christopher Buckley's Endorsement Of Barack Obama

From Kathleen Parker of National Review Online:

The truth few wish to utter is that the GOP has abandoned many conservatives, who mostly nurse their angst in private. Those chickens we keep hearing about have indeed come home to roost. Years of pandering to the extreme wing — the “kooks” the senior Buckley tried to separate from the right — have created a party no longer attentive to its principles.

Few wish to utter? In private? Libertarians have been saying this shit for 8 long years. What kind of "personal responsibility" party proposes buying people's houses or thinks that war debts magically ("Lord make a way!") go away? What kind of "reduce government spending" party holds Congress for a decade and only succeeds in increasing spending at a rate that would make a true socialist blush? What kind of "get the government out of our lives" party wants more government intervention on adoption, abortion, local school systems, gays, need I go on? What kind of "let local charities do their work" party delves out billions to churches while cutting needed spending in science? What kind of "holding government accountable" party lets Iraq go as it did, lets the "drug war" go as it has, lets Washington-subsidized Wall Street go as it did, lets new military weaponry come out over budget and far beneath expectations, need I go on? Hence:

Republicans are not short on brainpower — or pride — but they have strayed off course. They do not, in fact, deserve to win this time, and someone had to remind them why.

Christopher Buckley, ever the swashbuckling heir to his father’s defiant spirit, walked the plank so that the sinking mother ship might right itself.

No doubt his seafaring father is cheering from heaven: “Ahoy there, Christo! Well done, my son.”

I don't feel so guilty now. I guess I'm just not a "real" American: I value my rights and opportunities more than flags and Jesus.

Leçons from France via Walid Phares

In the Western debate on how best to counter the rise and expansion of the Jihadi movement, particularly the Salafists, within liberal democracies, European experiences are important because of the sheer numbers of militants and the dissemination within many urban areas. France's counter terrorism experiences are one among these learning processes for all other European Govenrment but also for North American CT planning as well. In an article I published in the Middle East Times today I commented on France's Interior Minister remarks on the state of confrontation with the Jihadists. In a recent series of seminars in Paris, which I will report about on CTB, I also interacted with a number of French legislators and CT officials dealing with the French involvement in Afghanistan and the Sahel. In short, France is heading towards "increasing engagement with al Qaeda on two continents, Asia and Africa, as well as at home.

Read it all at Counterterrorism Blog.

McCain Campaign worried about small donations from millions of Americans

I've had enough. Now the campaign is complaining that millions of people are giving Obama a few bucks each. Micro donations through the internet should be protected, it's the best way to cut out special interests. After this election we are going to see a lot of this as the anti-political speech agenda that McCain has had for a long time. If there are agruments that micro donations should be restricted that don't disenfranchize Americans please let me know, I'd like to hear them. As it is, disenfranchizement is the only goal that limitations would gain. Here are some notes on a confrence call by McCain Campaign Manager Rick Davis (Link to article) :

Obama is refusing to release any of his donors under $200.00 per person. Obviously in order to raise 150 million he's had to include hundreds of thousands possibly a million new donors.
It's important to note that this is the first campaign since the watergate era that has taken a primary fundraising effort and driven into general election. This is the first time that all primary funds could be used for general, this raises questions about whether his donors are qualified. Why isn't the Obama Campaign reporting them?
The RNC is going to update all their stuff online so you'll be able to search every donation that McCain AND RNC has ever raised.
What is Obama's excuse for not doing this? He has the technology.
During the primary Obama constantly badgered opponents. If he were the nominee and the Republican agreed, he'd take Government funds. But he didn't. His fundraising machine grew and grew; Nobody knows how or why.
He repeatedly made pledges to the public that he'd take government funds if the Republican candidate did. He looked in the camera and said, "I will call John McCain, and I will negotiate with John McCain..."
He never called John McCain, and we all learned in a blog post that he'd forgo public financing.
We need to have a public dialog about this.
We don't want to find out there has been impropriety in the donations he's received. If there's problems we need to find out about them and publish them. There have been discussions between Obama's campaign and the FEC to clean up his donations. People on the Gaza strip have been buying teeshirts. It's against the law.
We could go on with more and more examples of these and that's just from the disclosed ones.
We want sunshine and transparency on this issue. The RNC has filed a complaint with the FEC to see if they can get to the bottom of these three hundred million in "secret donations" I say secret because I have no doubt that the vast majority are probably legitimate but they are being kept secret by the Obama campaign for no good reason. I looked everywhere I could to find out why they don't disclose these and other than the explanation during the primary that there were "Technical Limitations" on doing it I can't find any explanation. They have the resources to do it.
The RNC says they can make all their donations publicly searchable in 24 hours. If the RNC can do it, why can't the Obama campaign do it?
To finish up: this pattern of non-disclosure & setting his own rules is consistent with what we've seen from Senator Obama. Doesn't answer ACORN questions. Just puts out enough information to get through each day. We dribble out information.
Where's the disclosure? RElationships. I don't want this call to devolve into a relationship call but "Just one of my friends in the neighborhood" but now we know Ayers had a much deeper much more involved relationship with Obama.
When will we learn more about the least experience Presidential nominee from the Democratic party?
One report from FEC says this could result in the largest fine ever.
Obviously Obama wants to obey the law. Obviously his campaign wants to adhere to requirements.
One other disturbing aspect of this issue is that because John McCain took funds, their campaign will be audited by the FEC. Because Obama didn't take funds, there's a "lingering question" as to whether or not there will be an audit of his fundraising. That raises "larger spectre" over voluntary cooperation that Obama isn't showing.
Congrats to Obama on money raised, but shame on them for not letting the public see where coming from.

Movie Review: Midnight Meat Train

I don't know how completely predictable Midnight Meat Train would be to a viewer who has not read horror-homo Clive Barker's short story. But even though I knew the whole deal (and I'm guessing it won't take too long for most people to figure it out), I still thoroughly enjoyed this movie: it is gloriously sick.

Visually the movie is pretty interesting, the acting isn't awful (except for Brooke Shields), and the plot has its moments of uncomfortable tension. But the best part of this film is the gore, which is plentiful, twisted, and inventive (hammer-fu has never been done better). And while the plot and ending may be a bit overdone and obvious, the movie still lets some bat-shit craziness go fancifully unexplained.

A definite must-see for fans of Clive Barker, total gross-out, or gore-fu.

If this comes to pass, perhaps the other party will stop genuflecting to the religulous.

The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it.
P. J. O'Rourke

A Liberal Supermajority
Get ready for 'change' we haven't seen since 1965, or 1933.
WSJ

If the current polls hold, Barack Obama will win the White House on November 4 and Democrats will consolidate their Congressional majorities, probably with a filibuster-proof Senate or very close to it. Without the ability to filibuster, the Senate would become like the House, able to pass whatever the majority wants.

Though we doubt most Americans realize it, this would be one of the most profound political and ideological shifts in U.S. history. Liberals would dominate the entire government in a way they haven't since 1965, or 1933. In other words, the election would mark the restoration of the activist government that fell out of public favor in the 1970s. If the U.S. really is entering a period of unchecked left-wing ascendancy, Americans at least ought to understand what they will be getting, especially with the media cheering it all on....

900-Pound Giant Squid Joins Cast Of 'The View'

According to fans of the show, the squid's most memorable moment thus far occurred last week, when it got a little testy during a discussion on whether teenage girls are getting "too sexy too soon" and squirted 12 gallons of ink onto Sherri Shepherd.

Hitchens on Election. As a "one issue" voter.

I used to call myself a single-issue voter on the essential question of defending civilization against its terrorist enemies and their totalitarian protectors, and on that "issue" I hope I can continue to expose and oppose any ambiguity. Obama is greatly overrated in my opinion, but the Obama-Biden ticket is not a capitulationist one, even if it does accept the support of the surrender faction, and it does show some signs of being able and willing to profit from experience. With McCain, the "experience" is subject to sharply diminishing returns, as is the rest of him, and with Palin the very word itself is a sick joke. One only wishes that the election could be over now and a proper and dignified verdict rendered, so as to spare democracy and civility the degradation to which they look like being subjected in the remaining days of a low, dishonest campaign.

Link to article

Hitchens on what we've become

link at gatetree blog.

Geek Heaven

Jay Walker's personal library:
"Is that a Sputnik? (Yes.) Hey, those books appear to be bound in rubies. (They are.) That edition of Chaucer ... is it a Kelmscott? (Natch.) Gee, that chandelier looks like the one in the James Bond flick Die Another Day. (Because it is.) No matter where you turn in this ziggurat, another treasure beckons you—a 1665 Bills of Mortality chronicle of London (you can track plague fatalities by week), the instruction manual for the Saturn V rocket (which launched the Apollo 11 capsule to the moon), a framed napkin from 1943 on which Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined his plan to win World War II."
in Wired.

Gee, thanks, Barney

Lawmaker Accused of Fannie Mae Conflict of Interest
By Bill Sammon

WASHINGTON — Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s.

So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions.

Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank's relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie.

Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical.

"It’s absolutely a conflict," said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. "He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane?

"If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have - or at least what’s not in the stock market - that this would be considered germane," added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. "But everybody wants to avoid it because he’s gay. It’s the quintessential double standard."

The two lived together in a Washington home until they broke up in 1998, a few months after Moses ended his seven-year tenure at Fannie Mae, where he was the assistant director of product initiatives. According to National Mortgage News, Moses "helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home improvement lending programs."

....

Critics say such programs led to the mortgage meltdown that prompted last month’s government takeover of Fannie Mae and its financial cousin, Freddie Mac. The giant firms are blamed for spreading bad mortgages throughout the private financial sector.

Although Frank now blames Republicans for the failure of Fannie and Freddie, he spent years blocking GOP lawmakers from imposing tougher regulations on the mortgage giants. In 1991, the year Moses was hired by Fannie, the Boston Globe reported that Frank pushed the agency to loosen regulations on mortgages for two- and three-family homes, even though they were defaulting at twice and five times the rate of single homes, respectively.

Best Pro-Obama Sign Ever

Obama should plant these things everywhere!