The Crows Nest
Crow's Nest Mostly Unmanned
Yes, I know the Crow's Nest has mostly been moribund since the site's relaunch. I do plan on using it more often in the future, I promise. I'll be spending a little more time on these posts as a way to link out to the blogosphere. Keep an eye on this space.
Also, please note that I've put the Amazon search bar on the main page, in the right sidebar. If you want to do some shopping at Amazon -- and who doesn't? -- be sure to shop through Captain's Quarters. Amazon does pay a small percentage of the sale to me, and it helps pay for a few sundries related to the blog. Much appreciated!
OpenCongress Web Widget
Ever wanted to announce your support or opposition to Congressional legislation? OpenCongress now has a web widget that allows bloggers to do exactly that. Take a look at this, and check out how easily you can build your own.
Maybe They're Flotation Devices?
The Australian Navy foots the bill for breast augmentations. The Labour Party would like to know why, and probably so would most of the voters in Australia.
The Thinking Blogger
Congrats to Fausta, who won a Thinking Blogger award. She thanks me for my friendship, but the truth is that Fausta makes it easy to be her friend. She's always positive and energetic, and she epitomizes the notion of a thinking blogger. Make sure to put her on your must-read list!
Ensign Calls For Return Of MoveOn Money
NRSC chair Senator John Ensign calls for Democrats to return all campaign funds donated by MoveOn, after their despicable New York Times ad today accusing David Petraeus of treason. "If Senate Democrats are serious about moving our country forward, they will denounce this outrageous ad and return the campaign funds MoveOn.org has lavished on them as well as the donations made through MoveOn.org -- the choice is theirs." Ensign's right, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the refund ...
Support The Al-Dura Petition
Roger Simon at Pajamas Media is circulating a petition to demand accountability for the discredited al-Dura report from France's Channel 2. This is, as Roger calls it, the "Father of all Fauxtography," and C-2 has never acknowledged its fault in airing the supposed murder of a Palestinian child. He wants C-2 to show all of the unedited footage of the incident in order to show that C-2 faked the murder. If they're resisting the demand, I'd say they have something to hide ....
There Goes The Undefeated Season
Notre Dame managed to get its first loss out of the way as soon as possible -- and as badly as possible. Georgia Tech came to South Bend and stomped the Irish, 33-3, in the worst home opener loss in school history. The offense fumbled twice and allowed seven sacks on Evan Sharpley, who must have longed to have Brady Quinn back on the field instead. If Charlie Weis doesn't turn this debacle around fast, he may want to start asking Ty Willingham for some career counseling ....
Would Early Primaries Allow More Donations?
Jim Geraghty at The Campaign Spot believes that candidates will benefit if primaries and caucuses get pushed into 2007. A loophole in campaign finance regulation appears to allow an extra $2,300 per donor for candidates if those elections are held this year. Be sure to check out Jim's analysis, and the surprising candidate that may benefit the most.
When Tom Met Jeralyn
One of the interesting aspects of politics is finding out that opponents are people, too. Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft met Rep. Tom Tancredo backstage at NBC's studios, and found him more likable than she had anticipated. Perhaps it was their mutual interest in Dog, The Bounty Hunter ...
Joe Lieberman A Right-Wing Nut?
That's what CAIR says, according to Joe Kaufman. He has a link to a CAIR official's blog post that calls Lieberman, along with John Bolton, former CIA director James Woolsey, and the Heritage Foundation's Peter Brookes as "extremists". Affad Shaikh also calls Dick Cheney a "fat bastard of a liar," apparently not meant as a pop-culture reference to the Austin Powers movies. (via Let Freedom Ring)
Broadband Homelessness
The Japanese have made homelessness more efficient, and more Net-friendly, too. Their Internet cafés have become homeless shelters for the struggling manual-labor sector. The problem has grown into such a problem that government intervention will shortly become a political priority.
Found My Law Firm
Power Line links twice to this story regarding an attorney at Faegre & Benson who refused to become a victim and helped capture a very dangerous man. Keith Radtke is a partner in the firm as is Power Line's John Hinderaker. Radtke is listed in satisfactory condition after getting shot in the back, but that didn't keep him from locking up his attacker in a wrestling grip until police could arrive. I don't know about you, but that's the kind of man I'd want as my counsel ....
Don't Click That YouTube E-mail
The latest in spam seems to be redirections from YouTube links in e-mail to IP addresses without domain names. They attempt to entice people by making it seem that they have been inadvertently YouTubed. I'm sure most people can see through this scam, but just in case, you've been warned ....
Rick Moran Escapes The Floods
Rick Moran has kept us up to date on his travails along the Algonquin River. Yesterday, the police showed up to get him evacuated before the river flooded his home -- but today, Rick finds that a minor miracle has taken place, and that his house survives ... at least for now. Keep Rick in your prayers, and keep checking in at Right Wing Nut House for updates.
Rule 1: Drag The Corpse On Over First
If I've learned anything in four years of blogging, don't try to be out in front of the death rumors, especially with the villains of the world. Saddam died a hundred deaths before we caught him alive in his spider hole, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi almost as many before his demise last year. Osama may or may not be alive, but everyone's avoided speculating on his fate for a while now. Maybe Val at Babalu Blog will get luckier with his "Castro Is Dead" story. We all hope so. I'll wait for the announcement ....
Comments (13)
Posted by Yompkee | October 16, 2007 10:07 AM
Democrats are against permanently exempting anything from taxes.
When you think taxing death is a great idea, you really can't take anything else off the table.
Posted by Jazz | October 16, 2007 10:10 AM
It's amazing to me how the Democrats wound up on the wrong side of this one. (Except possibly as part of an addiction to taxing everything under the sun.) E-commerce has been around for a while now, but it still has a long way to go. Hindering access by imposing additional costs is insane.
I don't know exactly how it would play out in terms of constitutionality. (Regulating interstate commerce is probably the broadest and most abused phrase in the constitution) But this does sound like it fits the bill to me.
Posted by patrick neid | October 16, 2007 10:41 AM
Can you imagine how hard it must be for a democrat to place a permanent ban on a tax resource.
I think we are asking to much!
Posted by RBMN | October 16, 2007 10:43 AM
I'm afraid that if the private internet companies (with new protocols and software) can't get a handle on all the email spam, and all the phishing schemes (beyond just segregating them at the end of the line,) they create a great hook for all the tax-loving-types in government to collect some type of spam-killer tax, that people might fall for. "For this small extra fee, we’ll finally fix this spam problem." And when they don't fix it, it'll be because they didn't collect enough money...or take enough control of the system. As they say, the power to tax is the power to destroy.
Posted by SouthernRoots | October 16, 2007 11:01 AM
Democrats love to tax. They will not allow a ban on any tax, and even if they did, all it takes is a new law a couple of years later to undo the "permanent" ban.
In Washington, King County, last year they increased property taxes to pay for road maintenance. Why they didn't have available funds from the gas tax, I don't know. The new budget is calling for three new taxes, two property and an increase in the sales tax. This is at a time where they are trying to force light rail with taxes that could hit upwards of $150 billion over 50 years. Even these taxes won't fund some highway projects fully, so they will need to raise more taxes and add tolls and fees to fund all they want.
Democrats love to tax.
Posted by Darren | October 16, 2007 11:02 AM
"And when they don't fix it, it'll be because they didn't collect enough money...or take enough control of the system."
You've hit the nail on the head, RBMN. That's the government's MO (even some Republicans). Neither the federal nor state governments should have the power to tax internet access. However, I'm not sure the federal ban fits within the framework of limited government. In fact, the Constitution's interstate commerce clause itself is a gross error on the part of the framers (just like the 'general welfare' clause). It's unleashed the full force of totalitarian government over the past 150 years. Of course, the federal ban currently acts to enhance the liberty of individuals by protecting them from the states. But on the other hand, it could go the other way with an actual federal tax on internet access (all in the name of regulating interstate commerce). Very thorny issue.
Posted by Orion | October 16, 2007 11:03 AM
As the Internet is an interstate commodity Congress could pass a tax on it on any day of the week ending in a "y", including bank holidays. However they don't have the nerve to do that and they certainly don't want a mish-mash of state regulartory agencies jumping in and taking those revenues for themselves (they'd get blamed, too).
However the big-state Democrats want to keep that option open in case public opinion ever changes so they won't support a permanent ban. We'll just have to take what we can get and hope for a shift in partisan balance by 2011.
Posted by daytrader | October 16, 2007 11:05 AM
The dot com types are mainly in the camp of the progressive/liberal side of the political spectrum so they are shooting part of their own base in the foot with this.
It is all simply another political power play to make life as miserable as they can like a school yard bully.
It goes right along with the idea of taxing tobacco products even more to finance SCHIP. They get a revenue stream and hammer something they hate and are trying to kill by a death of a thousand cuts.
Posted by swabjockey05 | October 16, 2007 1:10 PM
CE, did you really say: "Dianne Feinstein may decide to listen to her constituency rather than lose them to the GOP." ??
Been "sipping" the grog again...have we?
Posted by unclesmrgol | October 16, 2007 2:09 PM
swabjockey05,
No, the Captain isn't drinking the grog -- only his sailors. If you look at Microsoft's contribution pattern, you find that whichever party owns the pit-bull trying to regulate Microsoft's behavior, the other party gets the contributions. Right now, the needle is on the Democrats (because the Administration is dogging Microsoft), but the needle was to the Republicans (during the Clinton administration).
So imagine Google's contribution pattern should the Democrats try to tax their bread and butter. Their needle is fully on the Dems right now (even though they park their private non-Gore-compliant jetliner at Moffet Field) but I suspect that if the Google Regulation Act attempts to pass, that would change suddenly and dramatically.
Posted by swabjockey05 | October 16, 2007 2:33 PM
OK Uncle. You got me.
When he said "constituency" I was thinking of the Haight-Ashbury types still living the “summer of love”…not the few "deep pockets" sloshing the swill in DiFi’s trough.
But don’t the Dhimmis represent "the people"?
Maybe this swabbie should take a smaller sampling of the grog.
Posted by BB | October 16, 2007 5:43 PM
Tax, folks, is not just a source of money; it's a powerful weapon/social engineering tool.
Personally, I suspect this is the genuine concern against a permanent ban.
Come on! Everyone knows that Cap'n Ed hits above his bandwidth! Someone has to address that! (not with ideas and more speech, of course)
Big tax club comes in handy for a progressive thinker you know.
Posted by Rose | October 17, 2007 12:32 AM
Posted by Jazz | October 16, 2007 10:10 AM
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PLEASE!!! Just show me ONE Socialist Dictatorship that LOVES OPEN communication!
JUST ONE!