Conservative Donnybrook

This is a good Q&A on Governor Daniels’ proposal to address the horrific property tax problems in Indiana. I would amend it to implement a permanent, non-raisable 1% tax on grocery for those not on AFDC, WIC, EBT cards, etc. instead of increasing the general sales tax rate from 6% to 7%. Otherwise, quite a decent springboard. Bosma and Kenley, et alia, jumped aboard. How long till Bauer’s wig tells him what the reasons we can’t pass it are? Sorry about the bandwidth-hogging Evil PDF format. IN.gov’s fault, not mine. I simply refuse to link to the LGN (local Gannett News) Indianapolis Red Star, so I went directly to the source.

Marquette Warrior: Elderly Man Killed by Hit-and-Run Driver — Crowd Doesn’t Help, Steals His Groceries.

It astounds me that people could be so callous as to steal a man’s groceries as he lays dying in the street. Stories like this really push home the need for wholesale change in the way we view life in this society.

The comments to the linked story pose the question of whether the driver was legally inside the United States and it does seem a pertinent question since it seems that we hear of one story after another in which an illegal immigrant is involved in a hit-and-run. While there currently does not seem to be any evidence of Mr. Flores-Ocon’s citizenship status, there is plenty of evidence cropping up about his past criminal history (here and here).

h/t Marquette Warrior

Here’s something that makes you look like a piker. Enjoy. How’s civilian life, by the way?

Michael Tumasky of The Guardian has an interview with Shillary here.  Of particular interest is her take on the neocronies’ geometric expansion of the executive branch:

…the Bush-Cheney administration has gone much further than any other president and has been sustained for longer…There were a lot of actions which they took that were clearly beyond any power the Congress would have granted or that in my view that was inherent in the constitution. There were other actions they’ve taken which could have obtained congressional authorization but they deliberately chose not to pursue it as a matter of principle.

The Shill is at the apex of her rhetoric here.  Are we to really believe that she will remedy the Bush administration’s recidivst approach to executive power?  Her call to abolish the Electoral College in 2000 and her attempt to universalize American healthcare as first lady are prime examples of her centralizing liberalism, which runs counterintuitive to the principles of federalism she seems to be evoking here.  Is she going to roll back the unprecedented use of signing statements to halcyon times when legislative intent actually meant something?  Highly dubious.  If anything, we can expect Shillary to take a cue from Bush’s expansionism and use executive power to achieve the ends of her national socialist platform.  Get ready for a “government that works for all people,” comrades.  Hey, why work when you have a government that works for you?

From time to time, often over several beers and grain alcohol, my distinguished blog colleagues and I engage in sagacious political and cultural conversations. More often than not I am labeled the “Podhoretz-type, world-war-IV neoconservative” (brilliant Willmoore), told to read Russell Kirk and to sit at the end of the bar. While I am sure that there will be many debates over our foreign policy (which is about the only thing, in any way, I can agree with neocons about) and other minutiae of the neo/paleo divide I thought I would extend the olive branch to my paleo brethren and share my disgust. While perusing the news today I came across this article. The headline alone felt like a punch to my stomach and a kick to the groin. I knew that President Bush and our esteemed Republican Congress for the past six years had been way too spend happy, but biggest spender since LBJ? It’s worse than I could ever imagine. Its things like this that have even me considering the “nuclear option” that SM and Willmoore proffer, and vote third party in 2008. That or not vote at all.

Shirley MacLaine claims Kucinich had UFO encounter. I don’t really know what to add. I thought Mike Gravel was the kook in the Democratic primaries. According to MacLaine, Kucinich “said he felt a connection in his heart and heard directions in his mind.”

Directions in his mind?! Apparently, whatever the aliens did in there…well, judge for yourself.

Update: There’s a really great Kucinich campaign poster on Glenn Beck’s site.

Law Blog – WSJ.com : Indiana Law Student Shoots Real-Estate Finance Casebook

I’m calling this justifiable libricide. I never took Real Estate Finance, but based on some of the other classes I took in law school, I can see why someone would do this. I only wish I’d thought of it first. If I’d gone to Indiana University, I think he and I would have been fast friends.

Update: I have since gone back to this article and read some of the comments (many of which are much wittier and funnier than mine). I will share one which I found hysterical, and rightly belongs on a website like this:

“I tried to do this once- I pointed my rifle at my French textbook but it promptly surrendered without needing to be shot.”
Comment by Le Trole – October 22, 2007 at 8:33 pm

I wish I’d said that.