FISH STORY

There has been entirely too much attention to trivialities in the treacle corporate tax cut working its way through Congress, such as $35 million in tax relief for manufacturers of fishing tackle boxes. Leading manufacturers of these boxes happen to be located in or near the districts of Rep. Denny Hastert and Rep. Jerry Weller (Plano Molding, in Plano, IL, home town of Hastert; and Tackle Logic, in Sandwich, IL). We would further like to dispel any impression that Plano Molding's donations to the National Republican Congressional Committee had anything to do with this legislation. Also in the bill are tax cuts for sonar fish-finders and archery equipment.

Glucggg, president of the United Bass of North America, floated a statement denouncing the impending tax breaks. "The clear intent of this legislation is to put we bass at increased risk of bow-and-arrow attack by dull-witted fishermen who lack the skills and patience to catch us the honest, old-fashioned way, with hook, line, and sinker."

A spokesperson for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals chimed in, characterizing the bill as "worse than Hitler."

THAT'S RICH

From a thread over at Yglesias, Jane Galt kept yakking about the Gov taking 55 percent of your inheritance. She was alluding to the top marginal rate of the Estate and Gift Tax, which happens to be 49 percent, not 55. In light of the exemption below which no tax is due, currently a cool two million for a couple, and scheduled to rise to seven million by 2009, you can appreciate that the average tax rate can be quite a bit lower.

The chart below shows how much lower. You can see that the average rate does not get close to the top marginal rate until you're up past ten million bucks. This assumes, by the way, that the decedents undertake absolutely no other tax planning, except to be sure that the first one to go has left enough outside the couple to soak up the exemption (half of the two million). Numerous other legal devices make it possible to reduce the tax burden much further, so for the deceased taxpayer's top marginal rate to equal the average rate, said decedent would have to be very rich and very stupid.

The chart below applies to current law. With an effective exemption of $7 million for a couple, the point where the average rate approximated the top rate would obviously be higher.

CAMPAIGN ADVERTISEMENT

Found while I was digging my way out of my office.

ANNALS OF
FISCAL CONSERVATISM

Herbert Stein, WSJ, editorial page, October 2, 1989:

"But there is this peculiar and little noticed fact. In the last seven years of the Reagan Administration, the government enacted, with Mr. Reagan's signature, tax legislation that raised the revenue in fiscal 1989 by almost $120 billion, according to estimates in the last Reagan budget. This consisted of the following legislation, with the amount of the resulting revenue increases:

Mr. Reagan retained his title as the world's champion enemy of taxes, despite all the tax increases enacted with his concurrence during his regime. He was able to pass this title on to his heir, George Bush. The lesson for politicians seems to be that you can get away with raising taxes if you talk as if you didn't do it. . . "

READ YOUR #$@%^&$
FRONT PAGE!

The so-called liberal WaPo editorialist huffs:

"IN A PAIR of interim staff reports, the Sept. 11 commission yesterday gave the fullest and most detailed report on the planning of the attacks that the American public has received to date. Yet showing a peculiar instinct for the capillaries rather than the jugular, part of the public debate immediately focused on a single passing point that is no kind of revelation at all: "We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States." Administration foes seized on this sentence to claim that Vice President Cheney has been lying, as recently as this week, about a purported relationship between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda."

Meanwhile, on the front page of the print edition, above the fold and just under the lead story, we have:

The Iraq Connection
Al Qaeda-Hussein Link Is Dismissed

There seems to be WSJ-style news/editorial mind-unmeld developing here, and not in a good way.

SEND DICK CHENEY
A WHITMAN SAMPLER

He's right here.

Background here, here, and here.

ONE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN
I COULD DO WITHOUT

From Capitol Fax, via Atrios:

During the event, held on federal property, Reverend Sun Myung Moon proclaimed himself the "Messiah" and "Returning Lord." Congressman Davis spoke at the ceremony and, wearing gleaming white gloves, solemnly carried a golden crown that was placed on Moon's head. Moon, whose followers are often derisively referred to as "Moonies," is the founder of the Unification Church and owner of the Washington Times. . . .

"The five great saints and many other leaders in the spirit world, including even Communist leaders such as Marx and Lenin, who committed all manner of barbarity and murders on earth, and dictators such as Hitler and Stalin, have found strength in my teachings, mended their ways and been reborn as new persons," Moon told the assembled group at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 23. The crowd included numerous members of Congress and several diplomats, many of whom were apparently under the impression that they were gathering to watch people, including Davis, receive special awards for "peace." House Speaker Dennis Hastert reportedly sent a letter of congratulations. . .

(Davis is second from right, head respectfully bowed.)

WHY WE FIGHT

Keeping up with discussion in the communist community, an editorial in Monthly Review tipped me to a report from the Council on Foreign Relations entitled Iraq: One Year After. I take this report to reflect the desire of some elites for an expanded U.S. military role in the region. Among other recommendations, the report suggests that much more money and 200,000 troops may be necessary. The report agonizes that public support for the mission may be waning, and it suggests that the Bush Administration is insufficiently gung-ho.

I do not allege conspiracy or covert manipulation of events. I merely cite the document as evidence of the views of some influential people. I speculate that it reflects the center of establishment opposition to the Bushists. The purpose is to illuminate the strategic priorities of elite supporters of people like Howard "we broke it/we bought it" Dean and John Kerry. If you're for withdrawal from Iraq, this document should worry you more than G. Bush.

So forget about Bush. What reasons do these folks have for doing Iraq "right"?

1. Regional stability. "The United States has vital interests in assisting in the formation of a posttransition Iraqi government that can govern fairly and inclusively, provide public security, and maintain the country’s territorial integrity and independence while contributing to regional stability."

This is a euphemism for control. The U.S. would like instability for its enemies, such as Iran or Syria, and stability where it or its allies are trying to run things, such as Iraq or Saudi Arabia. Obviously the presence of oil is a key reason to strive for "stability," but let's not get ahead of ourselves. The question is, why do we need control, or if you like, "stability"?

2. Oil Righty Then. "Civil conflict in Iraq, the alternative to peaceful political competition, would risk intervention by and competition for influence among Iraq’s neighbors, long-term instability in the production and supply of oil, . . . "

Of course, if there had been no invasion, the U.S. could have allowed Saddam to maintain stability in the production and supply of oil. In light of the invasion, however, a military presence is required to regenerate oil production without the aid of Saddam.

3. "[Continued from above--mbs] . . . and the emergence of a failed state that could offer a haven to terrorists."

Here again, the invasion created a new problem, rather than solving one. Iraq is only a terrorist haven because U.S. control is inferior to Saddam's.

4. "It would also represent a monumental policy failure for the United States, with an attendant loss of power and influence in the region."

We have to clean up Bush's mess, if only for the sake of national prestige. But whose prestige, exactly? My prestige wouldn't suffer at all with a U.S. withdrawal. Or if it did, I could get over it. As of today, 833 Americans will never get over it.

Summing up:

As one analyst has written, the United States government must “recognize that the future of Iraq (and through it, the future of the entire Middle East) is very much in our hands. …[I]f the United States is unwilling to shoulder the burden of leading the reconstruction—economically, politically, and militarily—for years to come, it will fail.” [The cited author is Kenneth M. Pollack.--mbs]

So if you distill this report, the expanded occupation is a question of present and future control of an oil-producing region, and compensating for negative consequences of the invasion. So it isn't all about oil. It's partly about recovering ground lost in terms of U.S. national security because of the invasion. These are the elites who seem most likely to dominant a Kerry Administration. I can hardly wait.

HEY HEY HEY

Bill Cosby's recent rant about the deficiencies of child upbringing in black families was depicted by some conservatarians as anomalous and somehow anathema to the civil rights establishment and liberalism in general.

In fact, Cosby's remarks were immediately seconded by Kweisi Mfume, current head of the NAACP, and July 1st Cosby will be a featured speaker at the upcoming conference of the Rainbow Coalition. The topic: "Parent Power for Excellence: Fulfilling the Promise of Brown v. Board of Education So That No Child is Left Behind."

LABOR UNREST

It's getting nasty. In a related development, WSJ editorial writers threatened to add their bylines.

DUDE, WHERE'S MY PENSION?

Jobs for high school graduates have been getting worse in providing benefits for 25 years. You can blame both political parties. Meanwhile, profits are doing just fine. John Kerry says "I'm not a redistributionist," so you might want to let him know what you think about that. Bush is fine with being a redistributionist -- from you to his felonious corporate pals.

CARTOONS MAKE
POLICY ANALYSIS OBSOLETE

We had the Repubs pushing the wheelchair down the stairs, or was it over a cliff. Now this. It isn't bad. Maybe I'll forgive AARP for going into the tank on the Medicare drug benefit. I was trying to think of Republican cartoons and not having any luck, until I realized, Bush IS a cartoon. Like Wiley Coyote, he's run off a cliff and is hanging in mid-air, looking down . . .

THE VICIOUS INSTAPUNDIT
BLOGROLL CONTEST:
WE HAVE A WINNER

Voting for the Vicious Instapundit Blogroll Contest closed a week ago Sunday. The final, official, probably corrupt tally yielded the following rankings:

Third Place: #8 (Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler) Entered by reader Patrick. Prize: $15.

Second: #14 (Mark Byron) Entered by Jesse of Pandagon. Prize: $35.

First: #17 (Glenn Reynolds) Entered by reader Motoko Kusanagi. Prize: $50.

The winning entries reflect two different strains of demagogy in Blogistan (corrected from original; the right-hemisphere of the blogosphere). Demagogy may be giving too much credit, since in the case of Nice Doggie, it is hard to see any persuasive power in his rants. Evidently, venting makes him and his readers feel better. Thank God for small pleasures.

That aside, the Doggie is consistent with other voices that reflect a perpetual hysteria. It's not simply that the world has gone wrong for these people, since many would share that view, albeit for diverse reasons. What's different is the uncontrollable urge to demonize individuals, often in violent terms. This "literature" (sic) ought to provide case material for courses in abnormal psychology. For all of that, I can't help but doubt that the Doggie is serious in what he writes. It's just too cartoonish.

We also observe in these quarters the sophomoric desire to shock liberals. The quoted bloggers express a desire to win the vote. They think their viciousness is a badge of machismo, like suburban white boys who affect ghetto gangsta postures. We had the Beastie Boys, and now we have the beastie bloggers. They try to act dangerous, but all they really want to do is become commodities, and they don't even know it. There is no reason to fear nameless little people with keyboards. Rather, the approach is clinical, like the study of bugs.

The Mark Byron (2nd place) fantasy about murdering high officials of the U.S. Government is the quieter, equally demented side of this same dementia. His post seems to attain about 90 percent of the threshold for a visit from the Secret Service.

InstaPundit is a horse of a different color. His style is passive-aggressive, the way of the weasel. The attack is not direct and forthright, but delivered by innuendo, often through third parties. Criticism is more in sorrow than in anger. Plausible deniability shrouds his posts. If harm should befall the objects of his disapproval, it's really too bad but really their fault. They should have known better or somehow rejected bad leaders.

The quote submitted in the contest typifies this logic: genocide is a misfortune, not a crime. A crime has perpetrators, but for the enemies of America to be victims of genocide, the criminals would be the West, or the U.S. But that cannot be. By definition, the U.S. is good and cannot commit crimes. All references to crimes committed by the U.S. Government bespeak hatred of America and alignment with the Enemy.

This is a recipe for the production of cannon fodder. Watch the ticker.

UPDATE: Links to the original sources for the comments have been added.

SLACKSPEAK

My output has been low for the past two weeks. A family illness consumed a good bit of my attention, but we're on the mend and it looks like everything will be fine. I was doing Mr. Mom duty for a while. Other systems failed too. There was the car, now fixed. The dryer went on the fritz, leading me to spend some quality time at the local laundromat. The home network went belly up for reasons unknown, except for my Internet connection. I even had trouble with my floppy disk drive, of all things. Oh and our ice-maker died.

It could be worse. I could be imprisoned indefinitely on suspicion of terrorist activity, deprived of legal counsel and trial by jury, but that could only happen in a totalitarian state. Never here.

FRIDAY BUG BLOGGING:
WE'LL MEET AGAIN,
DON'T KNOW WHERE,
DON'T KNOW WHEN . . .

They're pretty much gone, at least on my block. A few carcasses here and there. I hope to be around for the next visitation.

The most exciting event was one capturing a different species and commencing sexual intercourse with it. The victim seemed to enjoy it. I managed to get a picture. Afterwards it ate the submissive species (not shown).

Hard upon the heels of the cicadas, a new infestation has begun. Two-legged creatures in T-shirts, bermuda shorts, and funny hats. They swarm the subways and sidewalks and ride by in tour buses, gawking at our not very tall buildings. On the Metro, they topple over when the trains start or stop. They stand mute in front of the fare machines, as if trying to decipher the Rosetta Stone. On L Street, they ask which way is K Street. I'm told in a few months they'll be gone too.