Easy out Parole System -- Rendell responsible

Rendell getting some well deserved blame here.

Critics of Pennsylvania's parole system are saying it is dysfunctional to the point of being scandalous - and fingers are pointing at Gov. Ed Rendell.

"We have carnage on the streets from violent offenders who should have been in prison. Instead of addressing the problem and keeping the streets safe, it appears that Pennsylvania may have put in an "express lane" for parole in our state," said John McGrody, vice president of Philadelphia's local Lodge 5 of the Fraternal Order of Police. . . .

Why won't Obama just hand over his birth certificate?

This whole issue is just too bizarre to really believe that it could be true. Indeed, I feel as if this whole thing is some type of setup to make critics look like kooks right before the election. The claim is that Obama is not qualified to be president because he is not a natural-born citizen of the US -- that Obama does not actually have a birth certificate from Hawaii. That said, Obama's response is puzzling. Instead of just handing over his birth certificate, they have filed a protective order to prevent people from observing what is going on in the case and moved to dismiss the complaint. The other thing that is very strange is that the lawyer who filed it, Philip J. Berg, was a former Democratic deputy Attorney General for the state of Pennsylvania. Anyway, you can find Berg's website on this issue here:

Country is Headed to a Constitutional Crisis

(Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania – 10/06/08) - Philip J. Berg, Esquire, the Attorney who filed suit against Barack H. Obama challenging Senator Obama’s lack of “qualifications” to serve as President of the United States, announced today that Obama and Democratic National Committee [DNC] filed a Joint Motion for Protective Order to Stay Discovery Pending a Decision on the Motion to Dismiss (which was) filed on 09/24/08.

While legal, Berg stated he is “outraged as this is another attempt to hide the truth from the public; it is obvious that documents do not exist to prove that Obama is qualified to be President.” The case is Berg v. Obama, No. 08-cv-04083.

Their joint motion indicates a concerted effort to avoid the truth by attempting to delay the judicial process, although legal, by not resolving the issue presented: that is, whether Barack Obama meets the qualifications to be President.

It is obvious that Obama was born in Kenya and does not meet the “qualifications” to be President of the United States pursuant to our United States Constitution. Obama cannot produce a certified copy of his “Vault” [original long version] Birth Certificate from Hawaii because it does not exist.

UPDATE: I just want to emphasize what I wrote earlier: "Indeed, I feel as if this whole thing is some type of setup to make critics look like kooks right before the election." I really worry that this is a type of trap to discredit and demoralize those who oppose Obama.

UPDATE 2: For whatever it is worth, here is a rather long rambling discussion from the lawyer who has brought this lawsuit against Obama. I had no confidence before with this guy, and I have no more confidence with him after listening to this. My only questions are: What motivated this guy? Was he in league with the Obama people? (It is about one crazy thing that would explain why Obama wouldn't turn over his birth certificate.) Or was he simply a prominent Dem who went a little crazy? I don't know, but the whole thing seems very strange to me.

Couric gives the same answer to question that was unacceptable for Palin

First let me say that I think that this is a silly question. I also think that Couric's answer here is just as useful as Palin's. The youtube click combines Palin's response about getting back that was an answer to another question and this youtube clip creates a very misleading impression because of that.

Reporter: What magazine and newspapers do you read?
Couric: All of them and any of them.

Is this serious?: Obama campaign takes a new tack on William Ayers

From John Fund at the WSJ's Political Diary:

For the first time, Barack Obama's campaign is contending that its candidate "didn't know the history" behind William Ayers, the unrepentant member of the terrorist Weather Underground, when Mr. Ayers' hosted a key event at his Chicago home that launched Mr. Obama's political career in 1995.

"When he went, he certainly didn't know the history" behind the bombs that Mr. Ayers helped set, chief Obama strategist David Axelrod told CNN yesterday. "There's no evidence that they're close," he concluded, even as reports of their contacts over the years continue to mount.

For his part, Mr. Obama told radio host Tom Joyner yesterday that Mr. Ayers "engaged in these despicable acts 40 years ago when I was 8 years old. I served on a board with him."

Despite the desire of Team Obama to put the Ayers issue behind it, the story of the bomber who never repented (he told the New York Times in 2001 that he didn't regret setting bombs and wished he "had done more") isn't going away

.

So why is the Saturday Night Live Sketch making fun of Democrats removed from all the websites?

Would all copies of the sketches be removed if it was a skit on Sarah Palin? John Fund has this story:

One of the funniest and most politically searing comedy sketches in years has vanished from the Web site of NBC's Saturday Night Live. Visitor comments asking about its disappearance are also being scrubbed from the Web site. The sketch -- a harsh indictment of the housing meltdown that led to last week's bailout bill -- was clearly too much truth for someone to handle.

The seven-minute sketch featured a mock news conference of Democratic Congressional leaders on the bailout bill, during which Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank inadvertently acknowledge that it was Congress that blocked reform and effective oversight of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Then SNL comic Kristen Wiig, playing Speaker Pelosi, introduces a parade of "victims" of the housing crisis. These "real Americans" include two jobless deadbeats who bought houses with no down-payment and a preppy couple who can't flip the dozen time-share condos they bought as a speculative investment.

They were followed by actors portraying the real-life couple of Herbert and Marion Sandler. They explained how they built a mortgage company that specialized in subprime mortgages, which they sold to Wachovia Bank for $24.2 billion in 2006 -- one of the worst acquisitions by any company ever. It helped precipitate the collapse of Wachovia last week.

The Sandlers were hustled off the stage by "Speaker Pelosi" after they said they couldn't understand why they were invited to a news conference of "victims" since they had done so well out of the housing crisis.

They were followed by financier George Soros, identified as "Owner, Democratic Party." The actor portraying Mr. Soros informs the group that the $700 billion bailout package "basically belongs to me" and that he has decided to short the U.S. dollar. That will trigger a devaluation "either Tuesday or Wednesday. I haven't decided which yet. It will depend on how I feel."

The brutally wicked sketch must have caused tremors in left-wing circles. The Sandlers and Mr. Soros have all been prime financial backers of independent political groups that have secured huge influence in the Democratic Party and helped fuel the rise of Barack Obama. . . .

Thanks to a reader of this blog in the comments section I was pointed to this link here for the video.

European Union Gets into iPod and Computer design

Well, if customers wanted these easily removable batteries enough, if they wanted that feature more than the cost of providing it, you would think that Apple would provide it. Instead, customers seem to be flocking to the Apple iPod. The customers seem to like the small size and lightness more than having easy access to the battery. In any case, that apparently isn't stopping the EU government regulators from deciding that the customers don't know what features they really want on these products.

The European Union is preparing new directives that could have an impact on Apple's future products, including "the New Batteries Directive," which proposes to mandate that batteries in electronic appliances be "readily removed" for replacement or disposal.

The EU has taken the lead in pushing for industry regulations that impact all companies that sell their products in Europe. For example, the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive, known as RoHS, demanded tough new limits to the use of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and flame retardants known as PBB and PBDE. . . .

Of course, during the warranty period Apple will replace the battery for you at no additional charge. If you want to extend your warranty people are free to do so.

Some questions for the Presidential debate during the night

John Kass is someone who knows where all the bodies are buried.

The national media have never wanted to understand, much less expose, political corruption here, or examine how Obama prospered under the Daley machine's guidance. A trip down the Chicago Way would force them to re-examine their ridiculous narrative that sets Obama as a political reformer riding a white horse, or is that a winged unicorn?

A tour of the Chicago Way isn't without risks for McCain. Though his supporters would say it puts Obama in proper context, Democrats would certainly cry "guilt by association." Yet the national urgency to view Obama as a political life-form several evolutionary rungs above Chicago's common political hacks is not only a mistake, it's disingenuous. So on Tuesday night, McCain might ask:

How, for example, could change agent Obama endorse the boss of the Chicago machine, Mayor Richard Daley, after Daley's friends and drinking buddies, white guys with mob connections, received $100 million in city affirmative action contracts, a crime that sent one of them to federal prison?

The mayor said there is no such thing as a machine. Does Obama truly believe there is no machine that runs Chicago and Cook County? Then he should declare it. And, if so, then how does he explain the Daley hacks sitting in federal prison for rigging thousands of city jobs?

McCain could ask about the machine trolls Obama endorsed per Daley's direction. And what of Obama's own political mentor, the legendary city sewer inspector/Illinois Senate President Emil Jones (D-ComEd), who upon retirement will convert almost $600,000 in campaign cash and stuff it into his pockets, and begin cashing a fat public pension, as his son, Emil III, takes Daddy's place in the legislature, courtesy of the Democratic bosses.

Is this the change we've been waiting for?

McCain could ask about Obama's real estate fairy, the convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko, who is now apparently cooperating with federal investigators probing the dealings of Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who also campaigned as a reformer. Rezko is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 28. How was the Rezko-Obama real estate deal, the one that Obama himself described as "boneheaded," never made a subject of a Senate Ethics Committee investigation? . . . .

This is why people should have permitted concealed handguns

Chilling account of fruitless 911 call.

Woman shot while on phone with 911

Getting Felons to the Polls in Ohio

This is what is happening in Ohio:

"I never voted before," Woods said, because of a felony conviction that previously barred him from the polls. "Without this service, I would have had no way to get here."

On the Ellis Henican Show at 10:20 AM on Tuesday

I will be on the Ellis Henican Show at 10:20 in the morning to discuss the bailout. His show is on SIRIUS 110.

The Key to human evolution: Men older than 50 having children?

The Times of London has this take on why mankind will slow its evolution:

Human evolution is grinding to a halt because of a shortage of older fathers in the West, according to a leading genetics expert.

Fathers over the age of 35 are more likely to pass on mutations, according to Professor Steve Jones, of University College London.

Speaking today at a UCL lecture entitled “Human evolution is over” Professor Jones will argue that there were three components to evolution – natural selection, mutation and random change. “Quite unexpectedly, we have dropped the human mutation rate because of a change in reproductive patterns,” Professor Jones told The Times.

“Human social change often changes our genetic future,” he said, citing marriage patterns and contraception as examples. Although chemicals and radioactive pollution could alter genetics, one of the most important mutation triggers is advanced age in men.

This is because cell divisions in males increase with age. “Every time there is a cell division, there is a chance of a mistake, a mutation, an error,” he said. “For a 29-year old father [the mean age of reproduction in the West] there are around 300 divisions between the sperm that made him and the one he passes on – each one with an opportunity to make mistakes.

“For a 50-year-old father, the figure is well over a thousand. A drop in the number of older fathers will thus have a major effect on the rate of mutation.” . . .

New Op-ed at Fox News: Did Biden Get It Wrong? You Betcha

The new piece starts off like this:

When you apply for a job the first rule for the interview is to know what the job is. Senator Joe Biden failed that test last Thursday. He couldn’t even get right what it is a vice president does.

The media is all over itself about how smart and experienced Biden is. Political Analyst Charlie Cook is quoted in the Washington Post on Saturday as saying “Biden is clearly so much more knowledgeable, by a factor of about a million.” Saturday Night Live does a skit about Biden being smart, if slimy. Meanwhile, Governor Sarah Palin is treated as being nothing more than a simpleton.

Yet, take Biden’s statement from the debate on the role of the vice president: . . .

One neat item of news, my article is now the most read piece on Fox News today. It was also the top emailed piece at Fox. UPDATE: On Thursday, 3 days after it was placed on the website, it is still the most read and most emailed piece on Fox.

Who should get the Nobel Prize for Economics?

Josh Wright has this post pointing to why Armen Alchian and Harold Demsetz should get the prize.

Obama gives people everything: Scary indoctrination of kids

The teacher who got his students to do this was suspended. I found this scary stuff. If the link doesn't work, try this.

Wolf Blitzer: "I Don't Remember" Biden's Law School Plagiarism

Recently, Wolf Blitzer had this exchange on CNN's THE SITUATION ROOM:

TRUMP: I really don't know Senator Biden but I know one thing. He's run a number of times for president. He's gotten less than 1 percent of the vote each time. And that's a pretty tough thing. You know, he's also been involved in pretty big controversy like plagiarism in college and various other things. That's a pretty big statement. So perhaps you change over a period of time. But when you plagiarize, that's a very bad statement. That hasn't been brought up yet, but I'm sure at some point it will. I'm sure that Sarah Palin will bring it up in a debate or somebody's going to bring it up.

BLITZER: Are you talking about plagiarism when he was running for president?

TRUMP: No, I'm talking about when he was a college student as I understand it, and this was a big issue originally but he supposedly plagiarized as a college student. That's a pretty serious charge.

BLITZER: I don't remember that. We'll check it out. But maybe you obviously have a better memory about that.

I bring this up because when I wrote a recent piece that discussed the differential news coverage that Biden and Palin received when they were nominated, some mentioned that the reason virtually none of the news stories mentioned any past problems that Biden had was because they were so well-known.

So much for Obama's Campaign Finance Reform

The Obama campaign returns the easy money. What about people whose name is listed as Joe Smith or Bob Jones?

The Obama campaign has shattered all fund-raising records, raking in $458 million so far, with about half the bounty coming from donors who contribute $200 or less. Aides say that's an illustration of a truly democratic campaign. To critics, though, it can be an invitation for fraud and illegal foreign cash because donors giving individual sums of $200 or less don't have to be publicly reported. Consider the cases of Obama donors "Doodad Pro" of Nunda, N.Y., who gave $17,130, and "Good Will" of Austin, Texas, who gave more than $11,000—both in excess of the $2,300-per-person federal limit. In two recent letters to the Obama campaign, Federal Election Commission auditors flagged those (and other) donors and informed the campaign that the sums had to be returned. Neither name had ever been publicly reported because both individuals made online donations in $10 and $25 increments. "Good Will" listed his employer as "Loving" and his occupation as "You," while supplying as his address 1015 Norwood Park Boulevard, which is shared by the Austin nonprofit Goodwill Industries. Suzanha Burmeister, marketing director for Goodwill, said the group had "no clue" who the donor was. She added, however, that the group had received five puzzling thank-you letters from the Obama campaign this year, prompting it to send the campaign an e-mail in September pointing out the apparent fraudulent use of its name.

"Doodad Pro" listed no occupation or employer; the contributor's listed address is shared by Lloyd and Lynn's Liquor Store in Nunda. "I have never heard of such an individual," says Diane Beardsley, who works at the store and is the mother of one of the owners. "Nobody at this store has that much money to contribute." . . .

Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said the campaign has no idea who the individuals are and has returned all the donations, using the credit-card numbers they gave to the campaign. (In a similar case earlier this year, the campaign returned $33,000 to two Palestinian brothers in the Gaza Strip who had bought T shirts in bulk from the campaign's online store. They had listed their address as "Ga.," which the campaign took to mean Georgia rather than Gaza.) "While no organization is completely protected from Internet fraud, we will continue to review our fund-raising procedures," LaBolt said. Some critics say the campaign hasn't done enough. This summer, watchdog groups asked both campaigns to share more information about its small donors. The McCain campaign agreed; the Obama campaign did not. "They could've done themselves a service" by heeding the suggestions, said Massie Ritsch of the Center for Responsive Politics.

This is great: More loosening standards to solve the problem

Has the government learned its lesson? Apparently, they haven't:

The housing agency's director, James Lockhart, suggested Tuesday that mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could loosen lending standards to help more homebuyers qualify for a loan and stabilize the market. The government took control of Fannie and Freddie earlier this month. . . .

The Impact of Campaign Spending Rules

McCain's spending on TV advertising is only about 42 percent of the level of Obama's.

Stock price changes when House votes for Bailout

The market peaked right when the House passed the bill. It has amazed me how every change in the market over the last couple weeks has been taken as evidence of why the bailout is needed -- even when there has to be some real pretzel logic to accomplish this (e.g., the immediate drop in the futures for the DJIA after the bill passed the Senate was explained by concern with whether the House would then pass it).

Palin on the newspapers and news sources that she uses

"Palin refuses to name papers, mags she reads"

Palin did basically answer this question, but it was a silly question and nothing would have been learned from it no matter what was answered. If she had said what Couric wanted, she could have claimed the NY Times whether it was true or not and Couric would have been happy.

So much has been made out of this answer, but I possibly would have answered it the same way.

Some more false statements by Biden during the debate

IBD has a brief summary of the inaccurate statements by Biden during his debate with Palin:

First, as InstaPundit's Michael Totten instantly noted after the debate, Biden — the great, seasoned foreign policy expert who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — falsely claimed France and the U.S. "kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon." . . .

There was also Biden's accusation that John McCain is soft on regulation, when in fact he tried to beef up regulations on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — an explanation for why he got so little campaign money from Fannie and Freddie over the years — under $22,000 — as opposed to the more than $126,000 Obama received in his short time in the Senate.

Sen. Biden falsely claimed that Obama didn't pledge to meet with Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; he falsely claimed Gov. Sarah Palin supported a windfall profits tax on oil companies; he said he's always been for clean coal in spite of his record of voting against it in the Senate.

Biden said we have to drill for more of our own oil, easily leading viewers to conclude he and Obama are in favor of more domestic drilling, but as the American Thinker blog's Rick Moran noted in a list of "Biden's Big Lies," "Biden has opposed offshore drilling and even compared offshore drilling to 'raping' the Outer Continental Shelf."

Gov. Palin called Biden on his claim that Gen. David McKiernan in Afghanistan said that the surge could not be applied in Afghanistan; in fact, McKiernan has said that some aspects of Gen. David Petraeus' Iraq strategy could be part of our war efforts in Afghanistan.

And Biden was wrong when he claimed that both McCain and Obama opposed troop funding; McCain simply opposed legislation with a withdrawal deadline.

The Delaware Democrat falsely claimed that McCain's health care plan raises taxes, failing to mention his proposal's offsetting tax credit. And he was untruthful in claiming that under an Obama Administration the middle class will "pay no more than they did under Ronald Reagan." Obama, in fact, says he will return income tax rates to the Clinton levels, which were significantly higher than those in effect after tax reform during the Reagan Administration.

National Review's Jim Geraghty noted Biden's claim that "we spend more money in three weeks on combat in Iraq than we spent on the entirety of the last seven years that we have been in Afghanistan building that country" and concluded Biden was "off by 2,000%."

Geraghty also found that "Katie's Restaurant" in Wilmington, Del., where good old Joe invited anyone to have a beer with him, apparently hasn't been around for decades. Maybe the senator was too busy conferring with imaginary French liberators of Lebanon to visit his constituency. . . .

1) How about this: "We believe -- Barack Obama believes by investing in clean coal and safe nuclear, we can not only create jobs in wind and solar here in the United States, we can export it." Compare to Biden's earlier emphatic promise from September of "No Coal Plants Here in America."

2) Or this: "Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history. The idea he doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that."

Well, this guy was the chairman of the judiciary committee and lead the fight against numerous Republican judicial nominations? As Sonya Jones pointed out, the powers on the Executive branch are in Article II of the Constitution, not Article I. Here is all of Biden's quote:

The idea he doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that.
And the primary role of the vice president of the United States of America is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there's a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit.

The only authority the vice president has from the legislative standpoint is the vote, only when there is a tie vote. He has no authority relative to the Congress. The idea he's part of the Legislative Branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive and look where it has gotten us. It has been very dangerous.

1) I am glad that we agree that Article I of the Constitution has nothing to do with the Executive Branch. Article I covers the legislative branch.
2) The primary role of the vice president is indeed to support the president, but that is in Article II, not Article I. But that cuts against your point below where you try to defend him by writing that "does in fact define the role of of the VP," because you imply that it is the vice president's role in the Senate that is his primary role.
3) Biden doesn't even get the discussion of what is in Article I correct. For example, the only authority of the vice president "has from the legislative standpoint is the vote, only when there is a tie vote. He has no authority relative to the Congress." This is so completely wrong that it is laughable. The vice president is the president of the Senate when he is there. He controls the rules of the Senate! He is the one who recognizes Senators when they want to speak.

Biden is so clueless that he doesn't know what part of the constitution covers the executive branch and even more bizarre he doesn't even seem to know how the Senate operates.


3) After Palin said about global warming that "I'm not one to attribute every man -- activity of man to the changes in the climate. There is something to be said also for man's activities, but also for the cyclical temperature changes on our planet," Biden said "Well, I think it is manmade. I think it's clearly manmade. And, look, this probably explains the biggest fundamental difference between John McCain and Barack Obama and Sarah Palin and Joe Biden -- Gov. Palin and Joe Biden." Does he really want to argue that 100 percent of the variation in temperature are due to man?

4) From Michael Krauss:

1. In VP debate, Biden said U.S. and France kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon. They didn not. Hezbollah has been around in Lebanon for decades and grown stronger. It was never kicked out by anybody.

2. Biden said Obama warned against letting Hamas participate in Palestinian legislative elections in 2005. The Wash. Post fact-checker says there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever that Obama issued such a warning.

5) Biden also got the supposed surplus in Iraq wrong -- it was less than half what he claimed it was. The Iraqis currently have $29 billion in the bank.

6) For additional claimed points see this.

A source of illegal guns in Russia: the Police

The Times of India has this:

MOSCOW: Police in Russia say they are searching for more than 215,000 guns that have gone missing from arsenals around the country.

An official police list of “missing firearms” has 215,326 entries, up from less than 1,000 in 1991, interior ministry official Sergei Fedkin told the Interfax news agency on Thursday. Fedkin was quick to stress that his own ministry was not responsible for the losses. “Experts believe the main source of arms in the criminal world is military bases and, above all, the defence ministry,” he said.

Meanwhile, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called Nato’s eastward expansion mechanical and said challenges and threats to some point as an excuse do not exist in reality. Lavrov, who was in Armenia to hold talks with the government there, said Russia was not concerned over Armenia’s intention to cooperate with Nato.

CNN has debate analysis looking at level of complexity of statements

CNN reports this:

Grade level: Biden, 7.8; Palin, 9.5 (Newspapers are typically written to a sixth-grade reading level.)

Sentences per paragraph: statistically tied at 2.7 for Biden and 2.6 for Palin.

Letters per word: tied at 4.4.

Ease of reading: Biden, 66.7 (with 100 being the easiest to read or hear), versus 62.4 for Palin.

Vancouver tops in Canada in gun violence

The Vancouver Sun reports this:

Vancouver tops in gun violence, study finds
Offences involving firearms far above national average
Doug Ward, Vancouver Sun, Meagan Fitzpatrick, Canwest News Service, Vancouver Sun; Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, February 21, 2008
Metro Vancouver has the highest rate of gun-related violent crime of any major metropolitan region in Canada, according to a new Statistics Canada study.
There were 45.3 violent offences involving guns for every 100,000 people in Metro Vancouver, slightly higher than Toronto at 40.4 but far above the national average of 27.5, says the report, which is based on police-reported data from 2006. . . .

Thanks to Mike Hoff for sending me this link.

Obama's Dangerous Pals

The NY Post has this. I had hoped that this was already obvious to everyone, but I guess not.

WHAT exactly does a "community organizer" do? Barack Obama's rise has left many Americans asking themselves that question. Here's a big part of the answer: Community organizers intimidate banks into making high-risk loans to customers with poor credit.

In the name of fairness to minorities, community organizers occupy private offices, chant inside bank lobbies, and confront executives at their homes - and thereby force financial institutions to direct hundreds of millions of dollars in mortgages to low-credit customers.

In other words, community organizers help to undermine the US economy by pushing the banking system into a sinkhole of bad loans. And Obama has spent years training and funding the organizers who do it.

THE seeds of today's financial meltdown lie in the Commu nity Reinvestment Act - a law passed in 1977 and made riskier by unwise amendments and regulatory rulings in later decades.

CRA was meant to encourage banks to make loans to high-risk borrowers, often minorities living in unstable neighborhoods. That has provided an opening to radical groups like ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) to abuse the law by forcing banks to make hundreds of millions of dollars in "subprime" loans to often uncreditworthy poor and minority customers.

Any bank that wants to expand or merge with another has to show it has complied with CRA - and approval can be held up by complaints filed by groups like ACORN. . . .

Palin-Biden Debate posts extremely high early ratings

If one debate was going to be watched the most, I am glad that it is the one with Palin.

Thursday's highly anticipated face-off between Alaska governor Sarah Palin and Delaware senator Joe Biden may be the most-watched debate in 16 years.

Last night's event totaled a 45.0 overnight meter-market household rating, according to Nielsen Media Research.
That's 42% higher than Friday's presidential debate between top-of-the-ticket contenders John McCain and Barack Obama, which scored a collective 31.6 rating among broadcast and cable networks.

It's also a stunning 60% higher than the 2004 debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards. In fact, the early figure surpasses any presidential debate since 1992's second bout between Bill Clinton, Ross Perot and George Bush (which received a 46.3 rating). . . .

Did it spend as much in three weeks in Iraq as seven years in Afghanistan?

Here is the breakdown for Biden's claim:

CRS Report for Congress
The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11
(found on fas.org site)

Covers FY2001 - FY2009
Afghanistan war $172 billion (8 yrs)
Iraq war $653 billion (6 years)

Let's just take average / year / week

AF: $21.5 billion / yr
IR: $109 billion / yr

7 years of AF $150.5 billion
3 weeks of IR $6.3 billion

Factual Mistakes by Biden in VP debate

Fred Thompson has the list in this youtube video.

Armen Alchian and Harold Demsetz in the running for the Nobel Prize

Two of my teachers from graduate school are in the running for the Nobel prize in Economics. That would be awesome, but Armen is getting very old so they had better do it soon.

Appearing on the Lars Larson Show at 7:05 PM EDT

I will be on Lars' show to discuss the bailout.

Virginia Teachers demonstrate support for Obama in classes

Fox News has the discussion here:

Virginia Republicans are in an uproar after the state teacher's union sent an e-mail to its members encouraging them to wear blue-colored shirts to school to show their support for Barack Obama.

State Republicans are calling it an undisguised attempt to influence students' political views.

The Virginia Education Association sponsored "Obama Blue Day" on Tuesday. In an e-mail sent last week, it urged teachers to participate by dressing in blue.

"There are people out there not yet registered. You teach some of them," the Sept. 25 e-mail reads. "Others, including our members, remain on the fence! Its time for us to come together, voice our unity, because we make a difference!"

"Let's make Obama Blue Day a day of Action!" the e-mail continues. "Barack the vote!"

In a statement released to FOXNews.com Thursday, VEA President Kitty Boitnott defended the e-mail, saying that it called for teachers to wear blue shirts, but not ones that mentioned a candidate. . . .

Some of the goodies in the "Bailout Bill"

You can find the bill here:

Sec. 501. $8,500 income threshold used to calculate refundable portion of child tax credit.
Sec. 502. Provisions related to film and television productions.
Sec. 503. Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.
Sec. 504. Income averaging for amounts received in connection with the Exxon Valdez litigation.
Sec. 505. Certain farming business machinery and equipment treated as 5-year property.
Sec. 506. Modification of penalty on understatement of taxpayer’s liability by tax return preparer.
Subtitle B—Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and
Addiction Equity Act of 2008
Sec. 511. Short title.
Sec. 512. Mental health parity.
TITLE VI—OTHER PROVISIONS
Sec. 601. Secure rural schools and community self-determination program.
Sec. 602. Transfer to abandoned mine reclamation fund.
TITLE VII—DISASTER RELIEF
Subtitle A—Heartland and Hurricane Ike Disaster Relief
Sec. 701. Short title.
Sec. 702. Temporary tax relief for areas damaged by 2008 Midwestern severe storms, tornados, and flooding.
Sec. 703. Reporting requirements relating to disaster relief contributions.
Sec. 704. Temporary tax-exempt bond financing and low-income housing tax relief for areas damaged by Hurricane Ike.
Subtitle B—National Disaster Relief
Sec. 706. Losses attributable to federally declared disasters.
Sec. 707. Expensing of Qualified Disaster Expenses.
Sec. 708. Net operating losses attributable to federally declared disasters.
Sec. 709. Waiver of certain mortgage revenue bond requirements following federally declared disasters.
Sec. 710. Special depreciation allowance for qualified disaster property.
Sec. 711. Increased expensing for qualified disaster assistance property.
Sec. 712. Coordination with Heartland disaster relief.

New Analysis piece up at Fox News: Analysis: Economists Raise Concerns About Bailout Plan

The new analysis piece starts off this way:

While some politicians were reconsidering their opposition to the bailout this week, there is one group that still expresses a lot of concerns with the legislation: economists.

Interviews conducted with a dozen prominent academic economists, Obama supporters as well as McCain supporters, found little support for the bailout bill. Indeed, even the one economist who supported the proposal passed by the Senate Wednesday night had serious reservations.

Jonathan Berk, an award-winning finance professor at Stanford University and a strong opponent of the bailout plan, expressed the concerns of many: “I have never been so frustrated, I have never wanted to speak out publicly before on these political issues, but politicians don’t know what they are doing, they know nothing about these issues.”

The economists did not all emphasize the same reasons for the current financial crunch and they all did not agree how serious the problem is. But there are a number of similarities that can be seen in all their answers.

There is little agreement on how serious the current problems are. Take the statements from three of the economists. John Cochrane, a professor at the University of Chicago Business School, worried that the solution was out of all proportion to the problem.

The legislation is like this: some boats are sinking, so rather than bailing those boats out, you blow up the dam and drain the whole lake.

. . . .

Piece is at the top of the page on Fox News.


David Friedman has comments on the issues in my piece here and here.

CNN discusses hypocrisy of Obama and Biden on earmarks

You can listen to the MP3 of the piece here.

After Gwen Ifill, worry about Brokaw as moderator?

The Meet the Press interview is here:

MS. KENNEDY: Yeah, put my name on, yeah. No, "I know you're doing this to put your name on," that kind of thing. Yeah. No, there was a--you know, we reached out, obviously, I heard from my family, and I trust their judgment a lot. And then, you know, we went around and talked to a number of colleagues, groups, people who care, women, lots of different kinds of people, and then, you know, I did get a lot of unsolicited suggestions, a lot of people nominated themselves. Not you, but others, so, you know, your name came up.
MR. BROKAW: My name came up? In a dismissive and derisive fashion, of course.
MS. KENNEDY: Yeah, right.

Brokaw is the moderator of the next presidential debate.

NASHVILLE - Tom Brokaw will moderate the presidential debate Oct. 7 at Belmont University.

The Commission on Presidential Debates announced his selection today.

Brokaw is current host of NBC's "Meet the Press" and spent 21 years as anchor and managing editor of "NBC Nightly News."

The debate will be a town hall format, allowing the invited participants to ask the candidates questions.

The Gallup organization will choose the audience participants from undecided voters in Nashville.

Congressman who supported Fannie & Freddie says that he made a mistake

This from Fox News:

"Like a lot of my Democratic colleagues I was too slow to appreciate the recklessness of Fannie and Freddie. I defended their efforts to encourage affordable homeownership when in retrospect I should have heeded the concerns raised by their regulator in 2004. Frankly, I wish my Democratic colleagues would admit when it comes to Fannie and Freddie, we were wrong. By the way, I wish my Republican colleagues would admit that they missed the early warning signs, that Wall Street deregulation was overheating the securities market and promoting dangerously lax lending practices. When it comes to the debacle in our capital markets, there is much blame to go around for both sides."

Congressman Artur Davis, D-Ala

A new breed of hunter?

As the number of hunters continues to decline, will women pick up the slack? Is Palin serving as a role model?

PARIS, Tenn. -- Brenda Valentine was running a beauty shop in rural Tennessee when her shooting skills came to the attention of the hunting industry. Today, she is a television star and paid speaker at hunting conventions, where fans wait in lines for her autograph.

"People will bring me their grandpa's shotgun to sign or even kiss," she says. "Some have named their children after me."

Mrs. Valentine, 58 years old, is perhaps the most visible face of an industry effort to draw more women into the woods. As the number of male hunters has declined, the sport has targeted women with everything from pink guns to gender-specific hunting courses. Now, they're seeking out spokesmodels and pushing weapons tailored for women, such as lighter crossbows. Television shows starring women shooters include "American Huntress" and "Family Traditions with Haley Heath," chronicling the hunting adventures of a young woman and her tag-along husband and children.

The campaign received a boost in recent weeks from the Republican Party's vice presidential nomination of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Photographs have since emerged of the governor posing beside a caribou she'd shot, and supporters boasted that she knew how to field-dress a moose. Gov. Palin is an ideal role model, say some women hunters, because she defies the masculine image of the sport. "She's a babe," says Linda Burch, a bear-hunting Minnesota accounting executive who applies lipstick before posing for kill shots.

Gov. Palin also counters the stereotype of the woman hunter as poor, rural and uneducated. A 2003 survey of Texans who had attended a state hunting-and-outdoors training program for women found that 82% lived in cities, 79% had graduated from college and 39% had household incomes above $80,000 a year. They spent a mean of $3,250 a year on outdoor recreational pursuits, said the state wildlife agency, which conducted the survey.

But some women see the media focus on Gov. Palin's hunting as evidence of a lingering gender gap. Only after Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a fellow hunter (causing minor injury) did his hunting habits gain attention. "Why is it news that Sarah Palin is a hunter?" asks Christine Thomas, a Wisconsin college dean and long-time advocate of programs to teach women about the outdoors. . . .

Does moderator of VP debate have a financial interest in Obama winning?

Gwen Ifill has a new book that is scheduled to come out on inauguration day on Obama. Here is a question: will the book sell better if Obama is president? It seems pretty clear that she picked inauguration day in the hopes of tying it in with an Obama presidency. An Obama presidency means that more books will be sold.