The Third

Isn't he beautiful?

He is 4 1/2 months old B.C. (Before C-Section).

Impartiality

I am not one to rage on and get offended about media bias because, well, I have come to accept that there is biased media. The LA Times, New York Times and Chicago Tribune, among others, openly advocated an Obama presidency and used their market power to make it happen. Having said that, these media outlets still have the ability to shock me from time to time in how far they have gone in abandoning what used to be a journalistic principle of appearing to be unbiased. Apparently, the LA Times and New York Times, among others, have made more than a tidy sum selling Obama hats and t-shirts and other momentos of the "Historic Election." This is mind-boggling in its hypocrisy. I guess it is true what Victor Davis Hanson has said about this election marking the year the media died.

See "Papers Sell Obama Gear...and their Objectivity?"

Plagiarize This!

A professor at Texas A&M International - Laredo, came up with a novel way to combat plagiarism amongst his students. Before the semester began, Professor Young warned students in writing that if he caught them plagiarizing, he would automatically fail the offending students, report them to school authorities, and publicize their names. Sure enough, Professor Young found six students plagiarizing and published their names on his blog.

Of course, the University came down hard on the violators by ... firing Professor Young.

State Bailouts

In addition to the proposed GM bailout, several states have requested federal bailouts as well. This is a very dangerous proposition as a federal bailout of a particular state would jeopardize the entire Constitutional system. The American Federal government system depends upon separate levels of government with all power not delegated to the National government being reserved to the States or the People. If the National government agrees to transfer funds to a particular State, it will do so only when certain conditions are met by that State. The State, therefore, gives up its sovereignty to the National government. This undermines the basis for our whole system of Government by creating the all-powerful central state.

That is not a precedent I want to set.

Auto-Bailout

For the second day in a row I write on the automakers' bailout being pushed in Congress. The New York Times frames the current debate between the Democratic Congress, on the one hand, and the Bush Administration and Congressional Republicans, on the other hand, not as whether the bailout should occur but what the source of bailout funds will be. The Democrats want to use a portion of the $700 billion financial industry bailout to fund the "rescue" package while, according to the NYT, the Rebublicans want to use a $25 billion fund already set up for the automakers to help them meet energy efficiency standards.

Assuming that the New York Times accurately described the debate (not a given), I am concerned that we have apparently decided to bypass the debate whether a bailout is correct in the first place. Any kind of bailout of these automakers merely ratifies bad business practices by their business leadership and their unions. It encourages them to remain inefficient and lets the unions continue to enjoy their anti-competitive compensation and benefits packages. Plus, why should we as taxpayers be asked to fund the bloated union contracts and pensions?

Finally, where does it stop? At least the financial sector bailout could kind of be justified as remedying a systemic problem - the freezing of the credit markets for the economy as a whole. Bailing out a particular industry opens up dozens of other industries to potential government intervention.

Auto-bailout

For the first time in my life, I called my Congressman's office to ask him to oppose a piece of potential legislation. I begged and pleaded with his intern that answered the phone to please, please, please vote against any bailout of GM, Ford and Chrysler. The mere thought of it makes me sick. The reason that all three American car manufacturers are ailing is their labor cost and benefits costs. Their own managerial incompetence, coupled with union greed has put them in this position. It is essential that Congress reject any attempt to reward these companies' bad behavior. To do otherwise would be like giving an addict more heroine. Please stop the madness before it begins.

NFL Thursday Nights

I know they've been doing it for the past couple of years, but I think that the NFL's decision to play Thursday night games is plain stupid. Whatever happened to playing the games on the weekend? The only football we should see on Thursday night is the latest MAC East v. West who-gives-a-crap-game-of-the-week.

Then again, I guess I am not the target audience of this idiocy because there is no way I stay up past 10 p.m. for any football game during the week.

Fool Me Once

In 1992, recognizing the will of the American people, Democrat Bill Clinton ran on a platform of passing middle class tax cuts. In 1993, the Clinton Administration immediately reversed its promises of a middle class tax cut by increasing the top individual income tax rate to 36 percent and creating a new top rate of 39.6 percent, by repealing the cap on Medicare taxes, and increasing gas taxes. See Heritage Foundation citing the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Tax Analysis, "Revenue Effects of Major Tax Bills," September 2006.

Time Magazine recognized as much in 1994 in its story about then-President Clinton's plans to cut taxes in time for reelection (or at least promise such cuts):

To candidate Clinton that seemed to be the case in 1992, but he abandoned his pledge of a tax cut for the middle class as soon as he moved into the Oval Office.

In his second term, once again, President Clinton broke his pledge.

Now it appears that President-elect Obama's allies at the Associated Press are laying the ground work to allow the new man in charge to follow in the well-worn footsteps of his Democratic brethren by abandoning their pledges of a middle class tax cut. The AP's Alan Fram And Trevor Tompson lead off their story today with this opening line:

People want the tax cuts promised during the presidential campaign, but may be willing to wait while President-elect Obama takes on the larger issue of fixing the economy.

How many times do they have to do this to us until people stop believing that Democrats are ever going to cut taxes?

Ron Paul

I must be losing it, but, aside from his foreign policy stances, Mr. Paul sure seems to be making a bit of sense here and elsewhere in his recent commentary:

But what the Republican leadership didn't realize was that ALL spending is a tax on middle-class Americans through price inflation and that eventually the inevitable consequence is paying for the extravagance with a financial crisis.

Congressman Paul did excite a large minority of young people prior to this year's election. I wonder if the excitement stemmed from his anti-strong defense view or from his views regarding strict interpretation of the Consitution. I'd like to hope it is more the latter than the former.

Obama's Congestion Tax?

The Manchester (UK) Evening News reports that Barack Obama's transition team has been in contact with Manchester, UK officials inquiring about Manchester's congestion tax placed on automobiles in the city centre. The concept is that the government would impose a tax on automobiles, perhaps during peak hours, to decrease traffic in high volume areas. Also included in the article and others I've seen are proposals to tax people based upon mileage travelled. I assume such a tax would required monitors to be installed on all cars that function like water meters.

How does this proposal to increase taxes on automobiles and their use square with President-elect Obama's promise not to raise taxed on 95% of all Americans. Let's hope this proposal never gets past the study phase because we certainly do not need to government telling us how much we can drive.

Mexican Drug Wars

Last month, a six year old Las Vegas boy named Cole Puffinberger was kidnapped by members of a Mexican drug cartel who were steamed because the boy's grandfather allegedly owed them money. An "Amber Alert" was issued and later rescinded as the facts became known and the boy was returned.

The fact that Mexican drug cartels are carrying out major crimes in the United States is a great cause for concern. This year, over 4,000 people have lost their lives as a result of Mexico's ongoing drug war. Now that the Mexican drug war has started to spread to this country, the rationale for enforcing and securing the border has never been higher.

During the immigration debate of last summer, I was ambivalent. I sympathized with the arguments made on both sides. If done correctly, I thought that a comprehensive plan to deal with the issue was proper. With the current situation in Mexico, however, it truly is a matter of national security that the United States enforce that border and enforce it now.

A good summary of the situation in Mexico is contained in the IBD editorial today which recommends supporting the Mexican military in the same way that the United States supports the Columbian military.

Veterans Day

On November 11 each year Americans and Canadians from what I understand commemorate the sacrifices made by soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen in serving the country. In my mind, it is the second most important civil "holiday" we have in the United States behind Independence Day. Both of my grandfathers served their country in the Far East, Grandpa Tony at Guadalcanal and the Pacific as a Marine during World War II and Grandpa John in Korea immediately after World War II. Regrettably, I never took the opportunity to speak with either of them about their experiences except briefly with Grandpa Tony after he had started to lose the ability to speak. Even in his eighties and with great difficulty communicating, Grandpa Tony remembered his experience and showed a reluctance to speak about it in a great amount of detail. Imagining what he and millions of soldiers and Marines like him did during the War in the Pacific and since then is awe-inspiring.

Two Boys

HOPE AND CHANGE

Animal Farm

It appears that the Obama team has spent some time scrubbing its change.gov website of some inconvenient statements made at barackobama.com during the campaign. This reminds me of a recurring theme in the book Animal Farm by George Orwell. In that book, after the pigs took over the farm, they drafted a set of Seven Commandments which would govern the animals' new bolshevik paradise. The Commandments were posted on the wall of the barn and included such affirmations as: "All animals are equal."

As the pigs on the farm grew in power, they began to set themselves apart from the other animals and slowly began to take advantage of the other animals to benefit themselves. Also as time went on, the pigs slowly and secretly changed each of the Seven Commandments a little at a time while the dim-witted animals just followed along. At the end, for example, the seventh Commandment read, "All Animals are Equal, but Some are more equal than others" and the dim-witted animals could not remember what the Commandment had originally said.

I am not saying that President Obama seeks to create a bolshevik paradise or that the American people are dimwitted animals. However, as with all politicians, it is important that we hold these politicians to their promises and not let them rewrite history to serve their present ends.

Seeing the Plants

The two boys and I had a terrific afternoon amid the blustery outdoor conditions as we went into Chicago to the Garfield Park Conservatory to walk through the huge public greenhouse. What a great way to spend a couple of hours. John even found a way to make friends despite the fact that he was jumping in puddles and splashing water all around the greenhouse. He disarmed each of the unfortunate victims of his splashing by telling them, "I'm watering the plants." Leo even got in on the act.

Community Organizers Unite!

Is the Obama Administration going to take Community Organizing national? I hope not because the Federal government has no place in mandating community service. I can imagine that what the Obama administration regards as community service and what I regard as community service are two entirely different things.

From the Change.gov website:

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.

The Life Story

Notwithstanding the discussions of what policies the two men wanted to foist on the American public, it seems to me that the election came down to the narratives cultivated and advanced by both Barack Obama and John McCain. It was these narratives as much as anything else helped to determine the outcome.

Obama presented himself as the well-spoken, academically-accomplished son of a Kenyan father raised in Indonesia and Hawai'i by a single mother and, later, grandmother. According to the narrative, Obama, through his own initiative, rose quickly through Illinois activist politics to become a post-partisan figure less interested in ideology and more interested in "getting things done".

As seen in his convention, McCain also relied much more heavily on his narrative than on specific policies; at least until the very end of his campaign when he started talking about taxes. McCain presented himself as the Vietnam era hero who had spent the last twenty-five bringing people together in the House and Senate to also "get things done". Like Obama, McCain asked us to vote for him rather than his ideology.

In the end, Obama won out in part because his narrative (whether true or not) is more relevant to a larger number of Americans. To his detriment, McCain's narrative focused on events regarded as ancient history to a growing number of Americans and on activities far from the day to day lives of most Americans - i.e. the inner workings of the Senate.

Michael Crichton's Contribution To Climate Debate

The Wall Street Journal reproduced this essay explaining a certain amount of skepticism from the now-decease writer. It is worth a read including these three paragraphs.

To an outsider, the most significant innovation in the global warming controversy is the overt reliance that is being placed on models. Back in the days of nuclear winter, computer models were invoked to add weight to a conclusion: "These results are derived with the help of a computer model." But now large-scale computer models are seen as generating data in themselves. No longer are models judged by how well they reproduce data from the real world -- increasingly, models provide the data. As if they were themselves a reality. And indeed they are, when we are projecting forward. There can be no observational data about the year 2100. There are only model runs.

This fascination with computer models is something I understand very well. Richard Feynman called it a disease. I fear he is right. Because only if you spend a lot of time looking at a computer screen can you arrive at the complex point where the global warming debate now stands.

Nobody believes a weather prediction twelve hours ahead. Now we're asked to believe a prediction that goes out 100 years into the future? And make financial investments based on that prediction? Has everybody lost their minds?

Seeds of Rebellion

The seeds of domestic insurrection were sown in young Leo this morning as he expressed his first sign of vocal rebellion. After he and his brother woke up, they both had their blankets with them on the bed. I told them both I was going to put their blankets back in their own beds. Young Leo looked at me and, following his brother's lead, said with no uncertainty, "NO!". Needless to say, I was taken quite aback and couldn't help but laugh at the little man's spunk. That was the first of what are surely to be many acts of defiance from the little rebel.

This is a picture of John from 2006. Why can't they be this young and innocent for just a little bit longer.

Rahm Emmanuel

I am completely not surprised by his selection to play a prominent role in the Obama Administration. Emmanuel is also a member of the Illinois political machine and is about as divisive a figure as you could name. Amy babysat for this guy's children a couple times back in the day and he was an arrogant jerk back then. I'm sure Emmanuel will bring the same people-pleasing skills to the allegedly "post-partisan" Obama Administration.

Taxes

I received this e-mail forward this morning. I usually delete these but this seems to explain it all very well:

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers, he said, I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20." Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four
men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from
everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. 'I only got a dollar out of the $20, 'declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, 'but he got $10!'

'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!'

'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'

'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have
enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R.
Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics, University of Georgia

Disappointment in Cook County

The great strides made against the patronage stain on Cook County and City of Chicago politics stopped in their tracks with this recent election. Not only did patronage sychophant Anita Alvarez predictably defeat Tony Peraica and the Green Party candidate for states attorney but Obama's win all but assures that Patrick Fitzgerald will be removed from his U.S. Attorney position here in the Northern District of Illinois. That is really disappointing considering the long string of stooges he has taken down over the past number of years in his encircling action against the Queen Bee of Patronage, Mayor Daley. Obama is a machine politician and will likely act to protect the machine.

The one good thing you can say about the Illinois political machine is that it is a beacon of bipartisanship. Both the Republicans and Democrats are dirty and aren't afraid to work together to bilk us out of our money.

Great Picture

The prescription for America:

Hope and Change and More Cowbell.

Liberal Post Mortem

This is just the kind of "helpful" advice the GOP needs to ignore. Right after the author gets done noting that McCain should have brought up the "Joe the Plumber" arguments earlier in the campaign, the helpful left winger offers this piece of advice:

Perhaps the best outcome for Republicans would be if they took the campaign
to heart, learned from their mistakes, and figured out for the next time
around how to put together a campaign that looks more like 1980 than 1964.
At the same time the next GOP candidate needs to look toward the future,
realizing that at least when it comes to the economy, the
conservative era has finally come to an end. (emph. mine.)

And this guy is a professor! First he criticizes McCain for not advancing conservative economic arguments, then he tells us that with respect to the economy, the conservative era is over. What a maroon!

Leave it to Newsweek to hire a HuffPost contributor to give the GOP advice on its future.

Mike Cameron

I am happy that the Brewers exercised their option on Mike Cameron. He had slightly above-average hitting numbers for a centerfielder and is a slightly above-average fielder as well (although nowhere near as good as his reputation.) For $10 million a year, he was a pretty good bargain. Added bonus is he wants to be in Milwaukee.

Merry Go Round

Pure joy.

Post Mortem

President-elect Obama wins.

1. The Congressional GOP was a big cause of this disaster. In 2006, when Pres. Bush was being assailed by Democrats and their media wing on Social Security and on Iraq, a significant number of GOP Congressmen got cold feet and abandoned Bush to his fate. At the same time, they passed pork-laden bill after another and Pres. Bush showed loyalty to them by approving said pork. When the GOP Congress did this to Bush, the bottom dropped out on his popularity and he became a lead weight on the party as a whole. In other words, significant parts of the mealy-mouthed, craven GOP Congress created the conditions for their own downfall by abandoning the head of the party when he needed them most.

2. John McCain ran a timid campaign but in the end, still did an acceptable job. Sarah Palin was a net boon for the party rather than a net loss because her selection created conditions for a future resurgence. As much as I dislike McCain’s approach to governing (skewering his own party while “reaching across the aisle” to “get things done”), he to this day deserves all the credit in the world for what he did last fall in speaking out eloquently in support of victory in Iraq. That should be his legacy. Now, let us hear no more about McCain again.

3. I refuse to be an unhinged equivalent of the left-wing, Fahrenheit 9/11, “Death of a President”, MoveOn.org, DailyKos pieces of crap that undermined this country for the past eight years. Without anyone to hate, I hope those assholes wither on the vine. Hopefully, we can say good riddance to those idiots.

4. I will put up with Obama triumphalism and “What an historic moment” bs for one week because I am magnanimous. After that, if you bring that saccharine bs my way, I become passive/aggressive by pretending to be magnanimous while ripping out your throat. Thank you.