A little background on Russia's putative president, Dmitry Medvedev.

Go read the whole thing. It's long, but it's worth it.

If you can't be bothered, the upshot is that Medvedev is strikingly low key, and has generally been discharged in the past with seeing to it that Vlad's desires have been fulfilled, that it seems likely he'll do the same when he's elected President. However, there are some clues from his past that, perhaps, just perhaps, he'll follow a more pro-western, pro-economic reform line, and could, possibly, at some point in the future, come into conflict with his mentor. He's a poodle plodder, who's kept his head down, and his opinions to himself, and this is where the trouble lies: no one really knows what he's going to do.

We're just going to have to wait and see how thing shake out. But his visit to Serbia, earlier this week, to play a part in the rabble rousing, in my humble opinion, doesn't leave much to doubt about where his loyalties lie. If I had to put money on it, I'd say he knows better than to bite the hand that feeds him.

Posted by: Kathy at 12:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 199 words, total size 1 kb.

Yes, you. My district's representative in the Minnesota house, who've I've voted for any number of times since I moved to Cake Eater land almost ten years ago.

Ahem.

YOU'VE JUST LOST MY VOTE.

Jagoff.

People come to Minnesota from all over the region to buy clothing, in large part because the state charges no sales tax on clothes.

But now two state lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle at the Capitol have introduced bills that would repeal that exemption. In exchange for that unpopular move, they would cut the sales tax rate for all taxable items.

"Monies from the sales tax are shrinking," State Representative Ron Erhardt, a Republican from Edina, told KARE 11.

"This would be a way to broaden the base we tax on and reduce the rate as a matter of fact."

Erhardt's bill would repeal the sales tax exemption clothing currently enjoys, and at the same time reduce the rate on all items from 6.5 percent to 5.96.

The competing sales tax reform bill from Brooklyn Park Democrat Melissa Hortman would lower the state sales tax rate to 4.5 percent. It would tax clothing, plus a long list of services and some food products.

Both Erhardt's and Hortman's plans offer income tax credits to lower income Minnesotans, to help offset the expected blow. The thinking behind the original exemption is that clothing, like food, isn't a discretionary expense.

{...}Representative Erhardt says he realizes it won't happen soon, but he wants to get the conversation going in the Legislature to bring some fiscal stability.

"I don't know if mine's a good idea," said Erhardt, "But that was the lowest we could come in at and the biggest pot of money readily available. So let's start here and start talking about it. ...

"I certainly don't want to be tagged with raising taxes!" Erhardt laughed, "After this last mess with the transportation bill."

Erhardt was one of six Republicans who crossed party lines to support the highways bill which increased gas taxes, license tab fees on new cars, and sales taxes in the Metro area.

Oh, really? You don't want to be "tagged with raising taxes" ? Bite me, asshole. Your idea of fiscal responsibility is not to cut spending---which, I hesitate to mention is regularly one of your campaign promises---but rather raising taxes. I'm not going to vote for you anymore. Christ. Like it doesn't already cost an arm and a leg to live in this friggin' state, you want to nickel and dime us some more? CUT SPENDING, JERKWEED. That's your solution to the problem.

I don't really care about a sales tax on clothes, because I know it won't happen. The Mall of Gomorrah is located in the Twin Cities for a reason, people, and they won't let it happen. To this day, I am still surprised every time I purchase an article of clothing and don't have to pay sales tax on it. This comes in handy when you're buying things like, say, suits for the husband, as you will have saved yourself $30 (or thereabouts) in sales tax. That may not be much overall, but that's money that can be spent elsewhere, like on, say, gasoline, which is over $3.00 a gallon these days. But the fact that this won't happen isn't so important as the whopping omissions Erhardt makes. He's telling us that, if his proposed legislation is passed, the overall effective rate would drop across the board to 5.65%, hence we'd be paying sales tax on a broader range of products, but we'd be paying less in sales taxes. That's his "fiscal responsibility" argument. But what dear old Ron is leaving out is this: the state's effective rate may drop to 5.65%, but he completely neglects to mention that many counties, like Hennepin, have added on a percentage point here or there to pay for things like, oh, I don't know, a state, county, and municipality subsidized ballpark for a BILLIONAIRE OWNER, as have local municipalities, who aren't so bold as to add on a full percentage point, but stick with halves and quarters, to pay for essential services the state won't cough up for. Like police and fire.

The husband is a retailer: he sells computer parts to people and he has to charge sales tax on these items. Wanna know how much sales tax is if you're running a business in the City of Minneapolis, already? 7.15%. 6.5% goes to the state; .5% goes to the City of Minneapolis; and .15% is levied by the county for the new new NEW Twinkie ballpark.

"But, Kath," you say, "if the state rate goes down, you'll be paying LESS in taxes." Uh, yeah, maybe on one item. But go to the mall, to buy clothes, and you'll be paying more. Go to purchase a service that perhaps didn't have to charge sales tax, but now does, and you'll be paying more. And you'll still have to pay for the municipal and county sales tax levies, which won't have gone down, but I'll betcha five bucks will go up, because they'll see the opportunity to keep sales tax at the same rate it's always been at, thinking no one will notice.

Fortunately, this won't happen. The state says "Bless you. Do you need a tissue?" every time the Mall of Gomorrah sneezes, so if this goes through, I'll be highly surprised. But the overall point is clear: Erhardt doesn't want to bother with the tedious business of cutting spending. He's all for raising taxes, and even if he claims that's the fiscally responsible thing to do, I'm not buying it.

I'm done with you, Erhardt.

Posted by: Kathy at 10:55 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 951 words, total size 6 kb.

I didn't think it was possible.

William F. Buckley, dead at age 82.

You can find the NY Times obituary here.

I honestly thought he'd outlive us all. A man with a brain as big as his, it would seem, would figure out a way to cheat death. Unfortunately, he was as mortal as the rest of us.

I remember, way back in the day, watching Firing Line and wondering how his brain worked. He would seemingly go off on tangents in any debate he partook, but the glorious thing about Buckley is that he could always make the digressions and tangential arguments relevant to the debate in which he was participating. In other words, he could bring it back, and it made his argument all the more compelling. He's like a boxer, looping around the ring, hitting here and there, perhaps taking a few punches himself, but ultimately winning the match in the end. Very few people have the presence of mind to be able to do that. To consistently have one line of thinking, of belief, but to be able to explore other areas without losing part of what brought them there in the first place? That's rare.

Don't believe me? Go on and watch him debate Noam Chomsky in 1969. It's long, but it's absolutely riveting and completely worth it.

While I will forever be cursed to listen to that odd mishmash of an accent in my head whenever I read anything he's written, I'm nonetheless very sad he's passed on. Moreover, conservative bloggers owe Mr. Buckley a untold debt of gratitude for starting the ball rolling, way back in 1955, when National Review was launched. There was nothing like it at the time, and it was his willingness to yell, "Stop! When no one else was inclined to do so," that, in part, gives us our mandate to do what we do, even if our contribution will never be as meaningful and long-lasting as his was.

RIP, dear sir.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:57 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 335 words, total size 2 kb.

While the last three paragraphs are crap, I agreewith everything Gideon Rachman has to say in his column this week.

Even his most bitter opponents grant Barack Obama one thing – he makes great speeches. The senator from Illinois is generally held to be a competent debater and an electrifying orator.

The notion that Mr Obama is the new Demosthenes has even made it across the Atlantic. On BBC radio the other day, there was a long discussion of the art of rhetoric, illustrated with clips of the best of Barack. William Rees-Mogg, a venerable former editor of The Times, asserts that Mr Obama is the most inspirational presidential candidate since John F. Kennedy and that “he is, in my view, a better speaker than Kennedy”.

All this leaves me baffled. I have watched Mr Obama speak live; I have watched him speak on television; I have even watched his speeches set to music on a video made by celebrity supporters. But I find myself strangely unmoved – and this is disconcerting. It feels like admitting to falling asleep during Winston Churchill’s “fight them on the beaches” speech.

I will admit one thing. Mr Obama has a nice, gravelly voice – which is perhaps a legacy of his days as a heavy smoker. But his most famous phrases are vacuous. The “audacity of hope”? It would be genuinely audacious to run for the White House on a platform of despair. Promising hope is simply good sense. “The fierce urgency of now”? It is hard to see what Mr Obama means when he says this – other than that some inner voice has told him to run for president.

{...}And then there is “Yes we can” – the phrase that was so inspirational that it inspired Will.i.am of hip-hop group the Black Eyed Peas to make his infamous video, backed up by film stars and musicians such as Scarlett Johansson and Herbie Hancock.

The strumming of guitars and crooning drowns out Mr Obama on the musical version. So I had to consult the text to find out what exactly it is that we can do. “Yes we can to justice and equality. Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity. Yes we can heal this nation. Yes we can repair this world. Yes we can.”

This sounds to me like a man doing an impression of what he thinks a great speech might be like. It is the kind of empty exhortation that usually gives politicians a bad name. Peter Sellers, a British comedian of the 1960s, caught the genre nicely in a parody speech: “Let us assume a bold thrust and go forward together. Let us carry the fight against ignorance to the four corners of the earth, because it is a fight that concerns us all.” Mr Obama might easily give a speech like that – although he would probably strip out some of the detail.

{...}And while Mr Obama’s most “inspirational” phrases are vague to the point of vacuity, he has shown in a series of television debates that he is more than capable of serious discussion. You do not get to be president of the Harvard Law Review if you cannot cope with detail.

So Mr Obama is not relying on empty exhortation because that is all he is capable of. It is a deliberate political strategy. And it makes sense. The more a candidate gets stuck into the detail, the more likely he is to bore or antagonise voters. Appealing to peopleÂ’s emotions is less dangerous and more effective.{...}

Hits it right on the head (before Rachman subsequently goes off the rails entirely, saying, in essence, that just because Obama's speeches are empty and vacuous, he wouldn't be as president.)

See, here's the thing. I can't stand Obama any more than I can stand Bubba Clinton. They're both con men. They're both slimy. All you need to do is watch them on tee vee for thirty seconds or so and you get the overpowering whiff of used car salesmen. Now, while I'm fairly certain Bubba would have been selling used Pintos, and Obama "pre-owned" Lexus' (Lexii?), they're both cut of the same cloth. They are salesmen, and they both damn well know it. Obama is selling a dream of an America where everyone can, really and truly, get along; where no one will have any partisan leanings after he's elected president; where everyone will unite hands and sing Kumbaya at sunset every day, across all the time zones of this country. Do you really think he's going to be able to deliver it?

Moreover, how dumb are you if you think he can actually do it?

Posted by: Kathy at 06:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 785 words, total size 5 kb.

Ok, so while I may have been a little off in the timing, it appears I was somewhat right in predicting that it was going to go to hell when Kosovo declared independence from Serbia.

In case you hadn't seen, the US Embassy in Belgrade is currently en fuego.

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Smoke billowed from the American embassy in Belgrade after scores of protesters broke into the building on Thursday, cheered on by crowds outside, in a protest at U.S. support for Kosovo's independence.

One protester climbed up to the first floor of the building, located on one of the Serbian capital's main boulevards, ripped the Stars and Stripes off its pole and briefly put up a Serbian flag in its place.

Protesters jumped up and down on the embassy balcony, holding up a Serbian flag as the crowd below of about 1,000 people cheered them on, shouting "Serbia, Serbia."

Some 200 riot police finally arrived about half an hour later, beating and arresting some of the rioters and driving the rest away. Some protesters sat on the ground, bleeding.

The storming of the building came during a largely peaceful state-backed rally attended by around 200,000 people to protest at Kosovo's secession on Sunday.

"As long as we live, Kosovo is Serbia," Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica told the crowd from a stage in front of the old Yugoslav parliament building in Belgrade, to applause.

"We'll never give up Kosovo, never!" protesters chanted back, as they waved national flags. A huge banner reading "Kosovo is Serbia" draped the front of the building.

"We're not alone in our fight. President Putin is with us," Kostunica said, paying tribute to the Russian leader who has opposed U.S. and European states' recognition of Kosovo.{...}

Mmmm. Nationalistic hyperbole? Saber rattling---even if it's not your saber you're rattling, but one of your friends' instead? Fire? Busting into an American Embassy and treating it like it's your own personal kaibo? What more could you ask for?

Mark my words: this thing is not going to end peacefully. We're just ramping up. The UN, for all its posturing, can't do a damn thing about Russia and its veto. And if Russia didn't veto any resolutions put forth, then China would. The EU is completely hamstrung, because, apparently Serbia doesn't want the carrot they've offered, and they're pretty sure they can get around the stick. All the Kosovars have going for them right now is NATO---and while that's a pretty big and good organization to have on your side, they really didn't solve the problem in 1999, did they? All they'll be able to do is keep things from going from bad to worse. While that may be a lot, it's not going to end this conflict, once and for all. It'll just put it on the back burner, again, for it to simmer, again.

Furthermore, I suppose this could actually be considered, well, somewhat opportunistic for the Russians. Presidential elections are on the slate for Russia next month, and if Vlad the Impaler wants to make sure his lackey Medvedev replaces him, and is willing to show some muscle to guarantee it (even though polling data suggests Medvedev already is going to win by a landslide) how handy is it that the Kosovars declared independence with such perfect timing and obliged him. I can almost see Vlad rubbing his hands together with glee, can't you? It remains to be seen whether Vlad can put his money where his mouth is in terms of the supposedly new and improved Russian Armed Forces, but, rampant speculation aside, there's just one thing that really needs to be said about all of this: hold onto your diapies, babies! This is going to be a bumpy ride.

UPDATE: According to Fox, the fire at the Embassy has been put out and the embassy has now been secured.

Also, according to Fox, and a Reuters correspondent they're currently chatting with who was on the ground at the time, the police let the protesters into the Embassy to set it on fire/trash it. Then they came back about ninety minutes later and cleaned things up.

Niiiiice.

Posted by: Kathy at 02:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 697 words, total size 4 kb.