Ya Think?

Republicans wonder why they're not blowing out the Democrats given the Obama record.

I just went to an up and coming conservative blog, Legal Insurrection, at which I comment regularly. Scrolling down the front page yielded pieces critical of Tammy Baldwin, Democrat candidate for Senator; Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Democrat candidate for Senator; and Barack Obama, incumbent Democrat candidate for President. Not a favorable word about their opponents.

Maybe, just maybe, this is part of the GOP's problem.

If It Seems They Can't Get Any Dumber

Conservative cult hero supply-sider Arthur Laffer has mentioned that unrealized capital gains are "currently" not taxed. Apparently he thinks he's refuting Warren Buffett--by putting the matter of taxing unrealized gains on the table ("currently taxed at zero percent"...great choice of words). Undermining his party in order to supposedly win a debating point.

A Generalization about the Right

Most Palin supporters aren't aren't crazy, but most crazies are Palin supporters.

Great News

SpaceX's Falcon 9 commercial rocket has launched and achieved orbit. Bravo.

(I'm extremely disappointed in Obama, but he is on the correct side of this issue in contrast to "conservative" Republicans like Shelby and Hutchison who want to maintain human spaceflight as a pork barrel enterprise.)

Mercy...No...Oh Please, Mercy...

Apparently this is not a joke:

Jeb Bush to help party rebuild
Former Gov. Jeb Bush and other Republican leaders are holding the first of a series of town hall meetings aimed at remaking the party's image.

Not everyone agrees:

''Jeb may be a better spokesman for the Republican Party than Rush Limbaugh, but that's a very low bar,'' quipped Democratic state Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach...

The new group also includes Republican presidential nominee John McCain, prompting the national Democratic Party to circulate a blogger's snarky observation that 'things are really humming along when your `rebranding' effort is led by your recently crushed presidential nominee and your discredited party leader's brother.''

Sayfie called that a ''cheap shot.'' He added, ``People judge the governor on his record and the president on his record.''

It might be a cheap shot, but it's a direct hit too.

Oh, and the story says that Mitt Romney is in on it too.

It Takes a Police State To Raise a Child

So says Texas Senator John Cornyn (Republican, of course), who believes all online activity should be archived for the police to peruse at their leisure:

"Keeping our children safe requires cooperation on the local, state, federal, and family level."

Background:

(CNET) -- Republican politicians on Thursday called for a sweeping new federal law that would require all Internet providers and operators of millions of Wi-Fi access points, even hotels, local coffee shops, and home users, to keep records about users for two years to aid police investigations.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, supporter of a bill that would require Internet user records to be saved for police.

The legislation, which echoes a measure proposed by one of their Democratic colleagues three years ago, would impose unprecedented data retention requirements on a broad swath of Internet access providers and is certain to draw fire from businesses and privacy advocates.

(HT: The Next Right, where I have ranted at greater length than here.)

Addendum 20090226. I just googled "inferring meaning in random data"[1]. At the bottom of the page, there was

In response to a legal request submitted to Google, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read more about the request at ChillingEffects.org.

I don't know if the request is spurious or if Google's search engine is flawed, but I am entirely capable of navigating away from illegal material if I stumble into it. Except, of course, even if I do, I might get a visit from the police should Cornyn get his way.

And how long before people submit spurious complaints to search engines in order to suppress ideas they disagree with? I guess we'll have to hire more lawyers & more bureaucreats to assure that doesn't happen: everybody knows that the solution to a problem caused by big government is to make government bigger.
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[1] I had recently found but forgotten the words 'pareidolia' and 'apophenia', and was trying to remember them

The RNC Strikes Again

Mark Tapscott reports that the Republicans are decking populist Sarah Palin out in six-figure Saks finery (as Tapscott predicted, the Politico did not decline to follow up):

And then they wonder why the American people - most of whom for a dozen years looked to the GOP to fix America, as the party had been promising to do for decades - have mostly decided Republicans are no longer to be believed.

Whatever possessed McCain to turn the newly nominated Palin over to handlers associated with Bush?

But that's the Republicans. Since 1988 the pattern has been to do just enough to arouse my enthusiasm and support, and then WHAM! I was on the verge of sending the Republicans money after the Palin nomination, but this time I held off and I'm relieved that I did.

Unfortunately, this puts a bit of a cloud over Palin. We're entering a recession or--heaven forbid--worse, and Governor Hockey Mom is touring the country as a fashion plate. Is she just being a dutiful soldier following RNC orders, or does she consider the designer outfits her due?

Tapscott concludes:

Short of a top-to-bottom transformation in leadership, ethics, intelligence and principles, it's difficult to see a future for this bunch.

Look at it this way: George Bush will go down in history as a transformational President...

Ptoi! on Compassionate Conservatism

Great evil is upon us, wails the religious right[1].

They brought it on themselves. Compassionate conservatism is a gateway drug to socialism.
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[1] The Anchoress:

...this election has been co-opted by something dark that has too many tentacles, and too many mindless ant-workers, in too many places.

Too many tentacles? Got it:

Obama == Cthulhu

Something dark with too many mindless ant-workers? Got it:

Michelle == Shub-Niggurath

<serious>The Anchoress would never stoop to race-baiting</serious>, but here's a helpful suggestion to those who would: replace or complement the Cthulhu Mythos with voodoo and the mindless ant-workers with zombies.

McCain Surges...Then Stumbles

Proposition. A politician good enough to pull off the upset against Obama would have been good enough to defeat Bush for the nomination in 2000.

The contrapositive is...

Parker on Palin

With a friend like Parker, who needs enemies? Money quote:

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

This ignores a crucial distinction.

To be unready for prime time is not necessarily to be out of one's league.

(Notwithstanding some interleaved constructive advice, Kathryn Jean Lopez piles on:

And, frankly, if it turns out that the “authentic” Palin of rallies and the Republican convention is just good speech delivery in a woman with some good spirit, I want to know that sooner rather than later

To repeat, unready for prime time is not the same as out of one's league)

Addenda:
1. I'd been looking for 44-year-old Palin to get on the national stage in 2012, 2016 or later. Given achievements like her successful negotiation of a new Alaska pipeline, I believed she could climb the learning curve by that time. However, her early entry runs the risk that she may get permanently discredited before she gets her bearings.

2. Gibson and Couric were overtly and covertly hostile, but were they unfair? Palin's pit-bull-with-lipstick joke was a challenge to bring it on. Well, they brought it...

Time to Rise above Principle?

A long time ago I heard that expression attributed to Senator Robert Kerr of Oklahoma.

My worry is that, after six DeLay/Lott years of spending like a drunken sailor who just won the lottery, Congressional Republicans may have chosen the

absolutely worst possible time

to begin insisting on frugality, limited government powers, letting the market work, etc.

We might all be much better off if they continue prostituting themselves for just a little longer. Then again, who knows?

Another Reason They're Called the Stupid Party?

For a party that is on track to get whacked in the Congressional election, trails slightly in national Presidential polls, and trails significantly in Presidential betting odds, the GOP seems awfully cocky.

I don't mean determined and upbeat. I mean cocky.

Sarah Palin

IMO Alaska's Governor Palin might fill out into presidential timber along Reaganesque lines.

There's a blog pushing her for VP, but Glenn Reynolds says she should run for Ted Stevens' seat.

Viewing Palin as a potential POTUS, I have doubts about both suggestions. Re VP: most of the recent Vice Presidents who became President did not have successful administrations. Re Instapundit: Palin needs more than two years of executive experience before running for President; furthermore, the modern Senate has not been a viable launching pad for presidencies (though Clinton may change that).

On the other hand, national-level experience would help Palin if she seeks higher office. If the GOP had a clue, they would put Palin on their presidential farm team and help her acquire such experience.

Of course, if the GOP had a clue they wouldn't have lost Congress.