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Refundable-oney: Tax credits are not tax cuts

Daniel Clark — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:50:44 +0000

When Barack Obama positions himself as a fiscal conservative, he’s not just kidding around. He fully expects the voters to accept this characterization, as evidenced by the tax plan from his campaign’s website. The six-page policy statement evokes the name of Ronald Reagan five times, while promising to cut the taxes of 95 percent of all Americans. (more…)

Worst Mates: Biden’s a better bad pick than Hillary

Daniel Clark — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 09:43:14 +0000

Why is it that when Joe Biden says Hillary Clinton would make a better running mate than he does, he’s suddenly presumed to know what he’s talking about? Perhaps it’s because he’s agreeing with both liberal and conservative analysts, who say that Barack Obama committed a tremendous blunder by not selecting the former first lady as his vice presidential candidate. Instead, those pundits should take Biden’s endorsement of their theory as an indication that they should reconsider their conclusions. This is not to say that Sen. Biden was necessarily the correct choice, but there are many reasons to believe he’s a better pick than Sen. Clinton would have been. (more…)

First-Class Demagogues: Populist Left shifts allegiances

Daniel Clark — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:30:32 +0000

Once in a while, a political ad will inadvertently tell you something important about the candidate or party that ran it. Such is the case with a series of Barack Obama campaign spots, which end with the tagline, “Middle Class First.”

The truth here is not in that the Democrats and their nominee are actually devoted to whatever segment of the population they think comprises the “middle class”; it is in their employment of this phrase as an obvious rebuttal to John McCain’s “Country First” slogan. The contrast depicts the Democrats more vividly than any McCain attack ad ever could. They look at the same America he does, but whereas he sees his country, they see only a collage of interest groups, to be turned against each other and exploited. (more…)

Barack Obama’s A Series Of Fortunate Events

Daniel Clark — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:08:48 +0000

To hear Barack Obama tell it, America’s success in Iraq is the result of a series of unrelated accidents. In a July 21st interview with ABC’s Terry Moran, the senator explained, “I did not anticipate … the convergence of not only the surge but the Sunni Awakening, in which a whole host of Sunni tribal leaders decide that they had had enough with al-Qaeda, in the Shia community the militias standing down to some degrees. So what you had is a combination of political factors inside of Iraq that then came right at the same time as terrific work by our troops. Had those political factors not occurred, I think that my assessment would have been correct.” (more…)

Saddam’s Invisible Tape: Another case of WM-nesia

Daniel Clark — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:14:27 +0000

Journalism students used to use the “Five W’s and an H” (Who, What, Where, When, Why and How) as a template for composing a hard news story. The difference between then and now is that then, reporters would try their best to answer those questions for their readers. Now, they just walk around muttering the words like Vinnie Barbarino (”What. Where.”), as if the answers weren’t really worth knowing or caring about. (more…)

Obama Fails Detest: Speech excuses America-haters

Daniel Clark — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:28:01 +0000

During a debate this past April, Sen. Barack Obama distanced himself from Weather Underground founder William Ayers by saying, “the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn’t make much sense.” (more…)

Political Palooka: Obama gags on Gitmo question

Daniel Clark — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:54:27 +0000

The handling of Barack Obama calls to mind a movie called The Harder They Fall, in which Humphrey Bogart played a boxing promoter whose client was a heavyweight named Toro Moreno. Bogey learned early on that Toro couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper bag, but that didn’t stop him from guiding the palooka to a shot at the world title. (more…)

They Mean To Bug Ya: Greenies promote entomophagy

Daniel Clark — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:15:32 +0000

“You want flies with that?”

This bad pun, and others like it, may soon be coming to a restaurant near you. That is, at least, if the environmental activists get their way, as they always seem to do.

A May 29th Time magazine article extolling the virtues of “entomophagy,” or bug-eating, has drawn a few snickers from conservative commentators. When viewed in the context of a broader public relations campaign, however, it becomes apparent that it won’t be laughed off so easily. Since the United Nations held a symposium on the issue in February, its conclusions have become the template for a series of stories in American and British publications like the New York Times, Discover magazine, the Independent and the Evening Standard. (more…)

Polar Opposites: Bears now more equal than people

Daniel Clark — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 12:21:57 +0000

When the Interior Department placed the polar bear on the “threatened” list, it did so on the basis of predictions from computer models. One could easily have guessed as much, since that decision could not have possibly been based on anything that’s actually happened.

Even as he announced this designation, Secretary Dirk Kempthorne noted that the world’s polar bear population has more than doubled since the late 60s, from about 12,000 to 25,000. Yet the melting of the arctic summer sea ice, which is what’s allegedly threatening the bears, has transpired throughout that same time frame. This is not to suggest a causal relation between the melting ice and the growing bear population, but it ought to be enough to cast doubt on Kempthorne’s conclusion, that the shrinking ice may reduce the polar bear population by two-thirds by the year 2050. (more…)

The Jolly Green Giant’s Senate Testimony

Daniel Clark — Sat, 17 May 2008 13:40:10 +0000

Sen. John KERRY: Mister Giant, you are an obscenely wealthy man. Some would even say you haven’t legitimately earned this obscene wealth of yours. How do you respond to those criticisms?

Mr. Jolly Green GIANT: People have got a right to their opinions.

KERRY: In fact, you live in a palatial mansion in the sky, isn’t that correct? (more…)