Palin Tracker

If the WaPo is going to trouble itself with an online Palin Tracker to follow how her endorsements are performing (which I still find creepy), they could at least update it within 24 hours of a huge win.

If Governor Palin did nothing more than replacing Lisa Murkowski with Joe Miller, she would be a plus to the party.

You Got Belgians Running Europe?

Miss Him Yet?

Happy Atlas Shrugged Day

I'm the first one on this?? From Facebook:

Ayn Rand Happy Atlas Shrugged Day! The novel begins on September 2 with Eddie Willers noticing a giant city calendar. "He thought suddenly that there was some phrase, a kind of quotation, that expressed what the calendar seemed to suggest. But he could not recall it."

Teabaggies Get One Right

I've expressed perhaps too much concern over the inexperience and lack of slick political skills among the new generation of "Tea Party Candidates." We shall see in November.

But I saw Mama Grizzly's Joe Miller last night on Kudlow. This guy is the real deal: war vet, top of his class at West Point, clean, articulate... No seriously, he would raise the average IQ of the US Senate by 10 points. He has firm philosophical underpinnings and the brainpower to contextualize and express them.

Lee Cary suggests the old guard makes room for some of this new talent:

The current GOP leadership would be wise to heed the lesson of Joe Miller's victory over Senator Lisa Murkowski in the GOP primary in Alaska and announce that they'll step aside if Republicans gain a majority in one or both Houses of Congress. Congressman John Boehner and Senator Mitch McConnell do not represent the leadership of a GOP with a longer-term future. They are the generals of the last political war, where they lost. And their party, if it wins, will have done so mostly because the Democrats lost support.

Coffeehousin'

Route 66 "I finally get to play with my friend Kirk!" Live at the Coffeehouse dot Com

Visit the virtual coffeehouse as well as City Wine, 347 S. Colorado Blvd in Denver.

Establishment Republican Withdraws Maes Endorsement

Denver Post, Karen Crummy:

"I'm concerned about the revelations. I'm withdrawing my endorsement," said Brown, referring to a Denver Post story today that Maes embellished details about his law enforcement background. "I'm beginning to find that (Maes') explanations are not adequate."

"Revelations?" I'm not surprised that the Denver Post is calling retired city managers and chiefs of police in another state to investigate the nature of "undercover" work that Dan Maes may have done as a Kansas cop twenty-five years ago, but I am a little surprised that a veteran politician would balk over such a triviality.

On Dan Maes Facebook page someone said that "Hank Brown is an old crony of Tom Tancredo." I replied,

I don't know about Brown being a Tancredo crony but he is definitely an "establishment" Republican. Dick Armey* said a mouthful when he warned, "The [TEA Party] movement is not seeking a junior partnership with the Republican Party. It is ...aiming for a hostile takeover." It seems to me that many GOP insiders are fighting back, slinging mud, and trying to maintain their stranglehold on the Colorado Republican Party. This is sad. If true it means they'd rather be in control than win the election.

*Link to Dick Armey - A Tea Party Manifesto

UPDATE: Democrat blog 'Colorado Pols' discusses what looks like a Last Ditch Attempt to Force Maes Out.

First of all, we don't buy that the "9/12" groups--who, mind you, are not the 'Tea Party' and subject to their own influences--are spontaneously rising up against Maes, any more than we think Hank Brown didn't know all about Maes when he endorsed him. After everything Republican leadership have themselves done to force Maes out since his victory over the tainted McInnis, there's very little question who is orchestrating this avalanche of bad press for Maes, slamming home just as the last day his name can be replaced on ballots approaches.

Word is the GOP Kingmakers want to replace Maes with their 2006 loser, Bob Beauprez.

Report: Tancredo Candidacy Violates State Law

Colorado Revised Statute 1-4-1304 to be exact. Kyle Getchey reports in The Constitutionalist Today that Colorado Law and the American Constitution Party's own bylaws require that the party's nominees be registered members of the party no later than January 1, 2010.

So, who will reign in this invalid candidacy?

Under Article 8, "the chairman shall enforce the observation of the bylaws and rules of the ACP." But obviously this isn't happening. So, if the ACP's Western States Area Chairman Frank Fluckiger (no joke) will not enforce the principled party's bylaws, then maybe some nice Republican should mount a legal challenge. Perhaps this distinguished member of the GOP could pursue action against the ACP, Tancredo, and Fluckiger, all three. That could make for good sport.

With a byline dated today (mountain daylight time) this story looks like it might have legs. But hurry, the ballot printing deadline is Friday!

Tom "Third Party Approach is Suicidal" Tancredo

Many times over the past weeks since Dan Maes won the Colorado gubernatorial primary I have searched for a copy of the video showing Tom Tancredo telling TEA Partiers, "Whatever you do, stay with the GOP. Don't form a third party." This is significant, of course, because bolting for a third party is exactly what the GOP stalwart has done, supposedly to prevent leftist Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper from winning the election. Ironically, polls have shown that Maes has an excellent chance to defeat Hickenlooper head-to-head in a 2-way race. (Particularly if the GOP establishment would stop hounding the man at every opportunity.) I still haven't found that video but I did finally find Tom's open letter to Tea Party Patriots.

Some patriots are tempted to launch a third political party or back one of the existing small parties that never attract more than one or two percent of the vote in state races. I strongly believe that such a course is suicidal and would only result in splitting the conservative vote and guaranteeing the re-election of liberals and socialists.

I believe the Republican Party is the natural home of conservatives and that the road back to constitutional government lies in taking control of the Republican Party from top to bottom, from county committee to the statehouse and all the way to Washington, D.C.

(...)

Yes, over the last decade, many individuals left the Republican Party because George Bush led the national party to abandon its principles and support several big government programs. But leaving the party is not the answer. Fighting for your principles and reshaping the party is the answer.

Throughout our nation’s history, third parties have never succeeded in taking power and running the government. They have sometimes succeeded in pushing a major party in a new direction, but just as often, they succeeded only in electing the more liberal candidate after many conservatives waste their votes on a third party candidate. Remember 1992? Ross Perot never had a chance to be president, but he did help elect Bill Clinton.

(...)

We know that our country faces real dangers – from Radical Islam abroad and from multiculturalism and the Marxist agenda at home. We also know politics is not a game, that the choices we make today affect our future for generations to come. Our children’s and grandchildren’s liberties are at risk as never before.

I hope you will join me in the Republican precinct caucuses in March, the county assemblies in April and then at the state convention in May. Besides supporting candidates who support the Contract with Colorado, help me lay the foundation for a generation of conservative leaders.

Well Tom, we did that. Dan Maes was a close second at the March caucus. He won the top spot at the state convention. And, most recently, he won the statewide party primary. And what have you done? You have joined "one of the existing small parties that never attract more than one or two percent of the vote in state races" and unless you somehow cajole Dan into quitting the race he is so completely invested in you likley will succeed "only in electing the more liberal candidate after many conservatives waste their votes on a third party candidate."

Gee thanks.

Tancredo Polling at 9 Percent

Our friend David [Harsanyi] opines after citing a new Rasmussen poll showing all CO governor candidates losing support over the past few weeks but most notably the self-important Tom Tancredo's support is in single digits when poll respondents are asked for not just their preference, but which way they really expect to vote. David says-

And when it’s all said and done, Tancredo’s vanity entry into gubernatorial politics will expire in the same state it existed, instilled with a false sense of importance.

(The third comment on the Harsanyi post is pretty good too.)

Tweet of the Day

@AceofSpadesHQ [Discovery Channel Enviro-gunman] Lee Smith thought he'd die due to increasingly lethal weapons technology. *Spot on,* dude!

The Speech

Marc Thiessen captures my thoughts:

It is telling that with the hundreds of hours Obama has spent speaking on healthcare, the stimulus, and his other domestic priorities, he could not dedicate a full 18 minutes to addressing the war on terror. That, as much as anything he said last night, sends a message across the world about this president's priorities, determination, and resolve--and not an encouraging one at that.

Unintended Consequences

Professor Mankiw links to an Economist article that suggests solid state lighting will not reduce energy use -- it will simply increase the demand for light.

The light perceived by the human eye is measured in units called lumen-hours. This is about the amount produced by burning a candle for an hour. In 1700 a typical Briton consumed 580 lumen-hours in the course of a year, from candles, wood and oil. Today, burning electric lights, he uses about 46 megalumen-hours—almost 100,000 times as much. Better technology has stimulated demand, resulting in more energy being purchased for conversion into light.

That, at least, is the conclusion of a study published in the Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics by Jeff Tsao of Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico and his colleagues. They predict that the introduction of solid-state lighting could increase the consumption of light by a factor of ten within two decades.

Either way we can agree that the ridiculous nannying toward adopting these devices will -- mirabile non freakin dictu -- not achieve the nannies' goals.

Shhhhhhhh.

Mission Accomplished.

Quote of the Day

It's early but I'm going to give it to my favorite blogger (present company excepted):

What the press found superlative about its Katrina reporting was the realization — very comforting post-RatherGate — that if they all agreed on a storyline and pushed it, they could still move the polls despite the alternative media. That the reporting was crap didn’t matter at all. -- Glenn Reynolds

Quote of the Day

And so, dear students, welcome back! Your generation is going to have dig its own way out of the hole my generation has dug for you (thanks for the Medicare, kids, and sorry about the deficit!), but here are a few tips that may help you get the best out of your college years. -- Walter Russell Mead

Tom Tancredo: Pariah

That's where the former congressman is headed according to Denver pollster Floyd Ciruli.

"Tancredo has lost the support of the Republican Party," local pollster extraordinaire Floyd Ciruli told me. "The only question is when he becomes a pariah."

This from a Vincent Carroll column that tries to shine some light into one of Tancredo's ear holes, such that perhaps he can see for himself what is going on.

In the Republican-heavy Ipsos Public Affairs polling sample, only 10 percent of respondents identified immigration as one of the "biggest problems" facing Colorado — not even the biggest problem, mind you — and yet Tancredo is running on little else.

(...)

"I couldn't stand by and watch the Republican establishment just hand over the state to Obama's hand-picked Democrat candidate," Tancredo tells his supporters.

So, rather than stand by, Tancredo has resolved to guarantee the outcome he supposedly dreads.

Dear Tom. Drop dead.

Hope. Change.

ThreeSourcers will dig Veronique DeRugy's optimistic take on "the Austrian school revival being led by George Mason University's Peter Boettke." It seems that ideas matter and that Austrian Economics might again be ascendant (the course is filled).

Ideas are what we are fighting for, no matter what's happening in Washington, no matter what the America people think at any given moment. It is because of our long conversations during the financial crisis, when I was depressed about my total inability to change things, especially in light of the resurgence of Keynesian economics, that I am still out here today fighting for free markets, for the power of the price system, and against centralization .

And that's why the Journal article made me so happy. We all remember how Glenn Beck, a few months ago, managed to put Friedrich Hayek's Road to Serfdom on the Amazon bestseller list. That was great. However, no matter how powerful Glenn Beck is and how capable he is at popularizing some of Hayek's ideas, this moment can't be sustained without recognizing where the ideas come from. This movement is based on real ideas that are studied in academia by serious economists -- even when no one believes in them.

Should've Had Bennet Do His Ads

I found it difficult to differentiate the too subtle differences between Weld County AG Ken Buck and former Lt. Gov Jane Norton in the CO GOP Senatorial primary.

But now that Buck has won, I find the DNSC and Bennet attack ads completely convincing.

Buck said in some speech in 2009 that we should consider repealing the 17th Amendment (pretty popular idea on these pages). The DNSC says "BUCK WANTS TO REWRITE THE CONSTITUTION! TAKE AWAY YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE!" And the tag: "Too Extreme for Colorado."

Bennet's ad says that Buck wants to eliminate the Department of Education! Privatize Social Security! Calls Social Security "Unconstitutional."

Huh? Why didn't you say so, Ken? Jeebers, my checkbook is your checkbook now.

Shoulda had that Bennet guy run your primary campaign though...

(My Google Fu Skills are way off today, if somebody has links to video, send 'em along.)

Quote of the Day II

"You won't hear those words coming from us," Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Cash for Clunkers

Taranto links to have a bit of sport with the headline:

News of the Tautological
"Used Vehicle Demand Up, Supply Down; Prices Soar"--headline, Detroit News, Aug. 30

Used car prices are climbing and the pool of available models is drying up one year after the federal "cash for clunkers" program spurred consumers to scrap old cars for new ones.

Used cars are selling for the highest average price in at least seven years, according to Edmunds.com, an online auto consumer guide. Last month, the average price of a three-year-old vehicle spiked 10.3 percent, to $19,248, compared to July 2009.

Quote of the Day

Stage IV metastatic variety of melanoma has a 5 year survival rate below 20% and even lower in some cases. Malignant melanoma diagnosis amounts to a check-out notice from the Life Hotel. Such check-out notices ought to entitle you to a "Get out of the FDA jail card" where you get to try experimental treatments. -- Randall Parker

Daniels 2012

I can be fickle -- it's still 2010!

Hat-tip: Ann Althouse who adds this photo link as an update to a bike comparison ThreeSourcers will appreciate.

"The Greening of Godzilla"

This is the title from a piece written by Walter Russell Mead for The American Interest Online that could not be improved upon. Mead dismantles the "green" movement not so much from a scientific standpoint but to illustrate that it has become the enemy that it abhors: The Establishment.

The case environmentalists used to make was that modern science was too crude and too incomplete to take into account the myriad features that could turn a giant hydroelectric dam from a blessing into a curse. Yes, the dam would generate power — for a while. But green critics would note that the dam had side effects: silt would back up in the reservoir, soil downstream would be impoverished, parasites and malaria bearing mosquitoes would flourish in the still waters and so on and so forth. Meanwhile the destruction of wetlands and river bottoms imposed enormous costs to wildlife diversity and the productivity of river systems. Salmon runs would disappear. Often, the development associated with hydroelectric dams led to deforestation, offsetting gains in flood control.

Mead goes on to point out that greenies have morphed to espousing a simple solution (cap and trade) for a very complex problem (the environment). They now hide behind the "expert" label to hush critics. That's interesting but perhaps not all that groundbreaking.

What is more interesting is how Mead parallels liberal enviro regulation to their handling of the economy. We're told that financial reform will smooth all of the economic cycles and eliminate future "bubbles." Of course, that's nonsense because the economy, like the environment, is too complex for central planning.

Essentially, the core environmentalist argument against big projects and big development is the same argument that libertarians use against economic regulations and state planning. The ‘economic ecology’ of a healthy free market system is so complex, libertarians argue, that bureaucratic interventions, however well intentioned and however thoroughly supported by peer reviewed science of various kinds, will produce unintended consequences — and in any case the interventions and regulations are too crude and too simple to provide an adequate substitute for the marvelously complex economic order that develops from free competition.

This piece seems to meander between subjects, but the common thread is "experts" trying to solve problems that cannot be solved with grandiose solutions. The result is stifling regulation that creates as many new problems as it solves.

Worth the whole read.

Hick: 'Taxes couldn't possibly be lower'

I recently endorsed, tongue in cheek, Mayor Hickenlooper for Governor because of his stealthy promise to "create jobs and cut government spending." And why do we want to cut government spending? There are many reasons but a big one is to reduce the tax burden on private (job-creating) industry. The problem being that when said tax burden reaches a certain weight most businesses can no longer support it. They go out of business, hunker down in survival mode, or potential new businesses are never started. The idea of the TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party movement is that America has already reached, and is surpassing, that threshold:

But many, maybe most, Democrats, including gubernatorial candidate Mayor John Hickenlooper, have an alternate view: Taxes couldn't possibly be made any lower than they are now:

A Conflict of Visions indeed.

Hailing Harsanyi Again

A friend tweets a link to "Thanks for 'nothing'"

Around the time the Tea Party was first upsetting all right-minded people, Colorado's Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet told a friendly audience that these hooligans were peddling ideas that were "ludicrous," "appalling" and even "nihilistic."

"Nihilism" is a chilling word. It has many definitions, but generally it is agreed that it means a failure to believe in change and/or hope.

But polls look a lot different today. And, consequently, Bennet is probably about two speeches away from asking Washington to stop treading on him and putting on an American flag T-shirt.

Welcome home, Dave! Give Mister Maes a closer look sometime.

Quote of the Day II

Now that we've been doing this whole democracy/republic thing for a few hundred years, it's time to assess where things didn't work out as planned. I mean, having all these useless, arrogant people spending like a third of all our incomes is obviously not what the Founding Fathers intended. If they found out about it, they'd probably just start firing their muskets everywhere in a total rage. And if they got their hands on some modern weaponry, who knows what damage they could do; just think of the lobby scene from The Matrix, but instead of Keanu Reeves, it's a royally pissed Ben Franklin. So it's probably good that the Founding Fathers are all dead, because we need cool heads to figure out how to fix things. -- Frank J. Fleming

Anti-Buck groups are running a funny (to me) scare spot: Ken Buck wants to REWRITE THE CONSTITUTION! He want to have LEGISLATORS PICK SENATORS! I guess they only have thirty seconds, but they don't really mention that that was how it was designed and used for 120 years. That wacky Ken Buck -- what won't he think of next?

Quote of the Day

When commenting about the US' apparent bribary of Mohammed Zia Salehi in Afghanistan on Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier, Charles Krauthammer had this to say:

"Your Honor, I stand before you in defense of bribary. War is difficult and if it's a choice between bribary and killing, I choose bribary."

Happy LBJ's Birthday!

@Historyday The 36th president of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson, was born on this day in 1908 in Stonewall, Texas.

Although I disagree with many of them, my Magical Biography Tour through the Presidents has found my becoming quite fond of all of them, appreciating their patriotism, service and integrity if not their ideas.

...and then I came to #36. I have a couple more books on him to complete, but what seems like a pretty sympathetic biographer describes an absolute megalomaniacal son of a bitch. And he gave us Medicare. He even mistreated dogs.