Here's today's RedState Morning Briefing Summary.
Before I start, I'd just like to point out that I don't pick these stories, Erick Erickson does. That's right, this is RedState's best. Sure, anyone can cherry pick the wingnuttiest posts from Free Republic, but this is the stuff that RedState really thinks makes them shine. It's not just front-page material, it's their pride and joy.
Black Caucus Gives Castro Attention; Ammunition
In this case, I have no idea whether the Congressional Democrats who visited Cuba really compared the Castro regime to the ANC. I don’t know if they really expressed admiration for Cuba’s tremendous scientific advances. I don’t know if they really said it was necessary for the United States to apologize to Cuba, or if they said that ‘the anti-Cuban right wing’ would defeat Obama in 2012 if he fully lifted the embargo. Looking at the delegation, it’s entirely possible. Or Castro may be making it all up in order to elevate himself in the eyes of an oppressed populace.
Yeah, who knows? Making stuff up to prop up a limp regime isn't just something the editors of RedState do, you know.
US tax code one of the most progressive ...
And this is a very, very bad thing! If it gets any more progressive, Rush Limbaugh is going to move to Kansas and go Galt! Just you wait and see!
This quotes a Financial Times article by Clive Crook:
Mr Obama intends to squeeze the rich, but the scope for this may be more limited than US liberals would wish. Few Americans seem aware that the US income tax code, as a recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development study showed, is already one of the most progressive.* Even before the rise in top marginal rates promised by Mr Obama, the US income tax collects 45 per cent of its revenues from the highest-income decile. Compare that with Britain at 39 per cent, Canada at 36 per cent, France at 28 per cent, Sweden at 27 per cent and an OECD average of 32 per cent.
As usual, the argument ignores sales and other taxes; focusing entirely on income tax hides regressive elements in U.S. tax policies. Another funny thing is that the study linked to in the article is about the widening gap between the rich and the poor.
That quote is basically the entire RedState post. How's that for pithy content?
How Much is 1,000,000,000,000
One of the simplest ways to get an idea of one trillion dollars is to consider the amount in terms of the passage of time. One million seconds is equal to roughly eleven days and twelve hours, and one billion seconds is thirty-two years. One trillion seconds equals thirty-two thousand years.
And if you had one trillion bytes of disk space, you could store enough Japanese anime porn to keep a nerd-perv happy for a whole week!
I'm just wondering where all this hyperventilating was when Bush passed a $3.1 trillion budget that didn't include the cost of Iraq (Obama's does).
Independents Trending Toward GOP
It’s a long time between now and the midterm elections, but obviously there’s every reason to be optimistic. Democrats are taking comfort in the fact that Obama’s ratings are significantly higher than those of Congress. But voters know that Obama has only been here a few months; they are unlikely to blame him for policies whose effectiveness they question. That’s likely to come a few months down the road, once they recognize that Obama is as much to blame as Congress for the problems in Washington.
This is good news for McCain!
Seriously, the Republicans have a couple of weak spots where they can hit Democrats in upcoming elections, particularly Chris Dodd. More solid polling shows, however, that if the economy is improving by next year, then Republicans are toast — again.
They'd better hope that Obama fails. Oh wait, they do.
The Pelosi-Mobile is Here
GM is teaming up with the makers of the Segway to produce a small, electric urban vehicle:
Looks kinda cool — what could be wrong with it?
Beyond that, this vehicle can’t be successful in most American cities today. Who will want to drive in this car next to regular passenger vehicles, trucks, SUVs, and even 18-wheelers? To allow the PUMA to thrive, most of the cars you currently see on the road will probably have to be sidelined. Presumably this will be only in major cities - at least initially. Liberals in Washington and in the major cities can accomplish this in several ways: by barring them entirely, limiting the hours in which they can operate, or by making legislative changes that make those vehicles unpopular - such as increasing gas prices.
A couple of years ago, TXDOT added an HOV lane to the clogged US-75 artery that brings zillions of SUV-driving suburbanites into downtown Dallas every day. The Republican twits who dominate Collin county (where the suburbanites come from) fought long and hard against it. One of their attacks was that the HOV lane was just the first step in making your car illegal. Prior to that, Houston made its first investment in light rail. The problem (according to Republicans)? It was just the first step in a plan to confiscate all privately owned vehicles.
Yes, folks, this is the party of ideas at work on our nation's transportation and energy problems.