Fixing the Internets

Larry Kudlow:

Uncapping the payroll tax reveals still another cultural misstep by Sen. Obama. He apparently has a difficult time understanding that nowadays, a veteran fireman or a veteran cop, married to a veteran schoolteacher, will make well over $100,000. In fact, they can make close to $200,000. Yet Obama still wants to go ahead and tax both the first and last payroll dollar of this group at a very high marginal tax rate by uncapping the Social Security (FICA) tax.

The FICA cap is an individual cap, unaffected by income earned/payroll taxes paid by your spouse.

(ht reader js)

And On And On

Good thing that surge fixed everything.

BAGHDAD - Anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is threatening a new uprising if an American-Iraqi crackdown against his followers continues.
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The cleric says he is giving his final warning to the Iraqi government to stop working with the U.S. military against him or he will "declare an open war until liberation."

Saturday's statement has been posted on al-Sadr's Web site.

Tired

Staying up late and being woken up by cats at 6:30 = bad combination.

I'm thinking a little sleep deprivation therapy for the kitties is in order.

Rudy!

Just because I miss him.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Twice-divorced former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani took Communion at a Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict on Saturday, breaching rules that bar those who remarry outside the Church from doing so.

As he left New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral with his third wife, Judith, the failed presidential candidate confirmed to Reuters that he took Communion from a priest.

Asked if he was uncomfortable with having broken the Church ban on the divorced and remarried taking Communion, Giuliani said, "No."

...adding that while it's nice on the rare occasions when the press reports on conflicts between action and stated religion in Republicans, this is a pretty dumb story. Perhaps if Rudy were still running for office it might have some relevancy if there was something else going on make it relevant. But what Rudy does in church is his business absent some other consideration.

Pep Talk

According to John McCain, we've all got the blues that only a gas tax cut can fix.

The Elite Of The American Press

Just the occasional reminder of what it takes to make it to the top of the elite press.

Straight Talk

Months and months of journalism to look forward to.

“Al Qaeda is on the run, but they’re not defeated” is his standard line on how things are going in Iraq. When chiding the Democrats for wanting to withdraw troops, he has been known to warn that “Al Qaeda will then have won.” In an attack this winter on Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, the Democratic front-runner, Mr. McCain went further, warning that if American forces withdrew, Al Qaeda would be “taking a country.”

...

In longer discussions on the subject, Mr. McCain often goes into greater specificity about the entities jockeying for control in Iraq. Some other analysts do not object to Mr. McCain’s portraying the insurgency (or multiple insurgencies) in Iraq as that of Al Qaeda. They say he is using a “perfectly reasonable catchall phrase” that, although it may be out of place in an academic setting, is acceptable on the campaign trail, a place that “does not lend itself to long-winded explanations of what we really are facing,” said Kenneth M. Pollack, research director at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.

...

Few, including Mr. McCain, expect Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a Sunni group, to take control of Shiite-dominated Iraq in the event of an American withdrawal. The situation they fear and which Mr. McCain himself sometimes fleshes out is that an American withdrawal would be celebrated as a triumph by Al Qaeda and create instability that the group could then exploit to become more powerful.

Censure And Move On

I've been trying to get a handle on just why attacking Move On is problematic in a way that criticizing other organizations isn't. It's certainly fair to criticize the leadership of Move On, and specific actions the group takes, but dismissing and marginalizing the entire organization is something else entirely. The issue is, I think, that Move On basically has no credibility other than what its members give it. Their power comes not from having a seat at any table, but they are instead empowered largely by the actions of its members. To dismiss Move On is to dismiss the large block of people that comprise it.

In the late 90s, the dirty fucking hippies were the crazy people who thought that Bill Clinton should neither resign nor be impeached. They were marginalized by the corrupt elites in our mainstream media who felt otherwise. In the great wasteland of our mainstream media there was almost no place one could turn to find someone expressing the majority view of the American public, that this whole thing was insane.

The Trivial

No one denies that the trivial things in politics can often matter much more than policy. The problem with our political press today isn't simply that too often they focus on the trivial at the expense of any substance, it's that they regularly send the message that the trivial is what's important. Not to them, they claim, but it's what's important to the great unwashed. Who knows where the great unwashed who turn on the teevee and see very important journalists telling them about the stuff that matters could have gotten that crazy idea.

What We're Dealing With

oy

Overnight Thread

On My Mind

Three rules for the Progressive Blogs.

1. No Sexism.
2. No Racism.
3. No parroting of MSM/Wingnut bullshit.

Just my idea.

UPDATE: Yes, I mean YOU specifically.

Once more with feeling

Life is but a song.

Signed,
Not Atrios

New thread

Thers has been on a roll.

Signed,
Not Atrios

On Your Own

Gotta go cook my urban roadkill. Not quite sure what it is. Looks a bit like a giant ferret with a big white strip down its back.

Actual Economic Pain

Unemployment hits 7.4% in Riverside County in California. That's getting towards widespread economic pain territory. It's much lower than that nationally, but pain is increasing in areas.

Actual Elitism!

I bet some of these feckless people were on my bus today. Bill Kristol, however, was not.

Deep Thought

I'd never be so stupid that I'd forget I drove somewhere and take the elitist bus home instead.

Arlen Makes Pleasant Noises

As he often does to little effect. But in this case he's saying it to Fred Hiatt's Wanker Club, so maybe it'll nudge their opinion a bit.

Zoo

I don't know if it's this evening's Obama rally or just the nice weather generally but this town's a zoo today. So many people out. Doesn't anyone work for a living anymore?