About
Captain Ed is a father and grandfather living in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, a native Californian who moved to the North Star State because of the weather. He lives with his wife Marcia, also known as the First Mate, their two dogs, and frequently watch their granddaughter Kayla, whom Captain Ed calls The Little Admiral.
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The Crows Nest
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 ....
Hobbs Choice
Volunteer Voters is holding its annual "Best of Nashville" on-line polls, and one of the categories is for the best political writer. Our friend Bill Hobbs, now posting at Newsbusters, and he'd like his on-line fans to cast their votes. Drop by and put one in for Bill if you get a chance!
Murtha Getting Backlogged On Apologies
Gary Gross of Let Freedom Ring sees another case collapsing on the Haditha charges. He's called for Murtha to apologize earlier, and adds another reason to the tally.
No Such Thing As 'Moderate' Islam?
Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan told a television interviewer that he finds the label "moderate Islam" offensive. Shrink Wrapped has a lot more on this, but at least in the same interview Erdogan acknowledged that "radical Islam" exists, and that it's been a catastrophe. Be sure to read the whole post.
MS-NBC Gets Punk'd
Power Line has a great post on a lack of journalistic effort on the part of MS-NBC. In covering the Michael Vick story, they reported on what they thought was Al Sharpton's website proclaiming Vick's innocence. I guess Alex Johnson and two other MS-NBC reporters couldn't bother to read the title bar of the site, which proudly proclaims it as a "parody site".
New Instapundit Podcast On Pharmaceuticals
I just caught this e-mail from Glenn Reynolds about his new podcast with Richard Epstein, the author of Overdose: How Excessive Government Regulation Stifles Pharmaceutical Innovation. Haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but the topic is important enough to make sure I carve out time for it tomorrow. Get their first and tell me what I'm missing ....
Fed Trying A 'Stealth Easing'?
The Federal Reserve seems to have conducted a quiet campaign to steady markets that started spinning out of control, according to King Banaian at SCSU Scholars. He thinks that the Fed has conducted a "stealth easing". Be sure to read his explanation and follow his lnks.
A Shameless Bit Of Sel-Promotion
Gateway Pundit and Val at Babalu Blog note a crass PR move by Hugo Chavez. Venezuela has responded to Peru's eathquake disaster with food shipments -- and with Hugo's smiling picture on the cans. He also uses the tuna-can label to undermine President Garcia of Peru, who narrowly defeated Chavez' pal Ollanto Humalla, whom the labels extol for his "solidarity" with Chavez.
Tacky beyond belief.
Comments (22)
Posted by Captain Ed | August 29, 2007 11:31 AM
test comments ...
Posted by Ken | August 29, 2007 11:38 AM
The Tampa Trib ran an article on this (prolly an AP article actually) that headlined the drop in poverty rates, but also made a point to overshadow this fact with information that the number of children without health insurance is at all-time highs.
No narrative here, nothing to look at, please move along...........
Posted by MarkT | August 29, 2007 12:33 PM
From the same article you quoted:
"even as median household incomes climbed slightly last year, both men and women brought home less pay for the third consecutive year. The household income growth was a reflection of more family members taking jobs to make ends meet, he said, and of some people earning more from sources other than wages, like investments."
Posted by rbj | August 29, 2007 12:39 PM
From tomorrow's NYTimes headline:
"Poverty rate falls, poor and minorities hardest hit"
Posted by M. Murcek | August 29, 2007 3:08 PM
As long as our property can be expropriated at the scratch of a pen on paper (it can, right now) we are not free...
Posted by Otter | August 29, 2007 4:12 PM
As MarkT said:
"The household income growth was a reflection of more family members taking jobs to make ends meet,"
So, sounds like the economy has generated More jobs, and more people are working.
" he said, and of some people earning more from sources other than wages, like investments."
In other words, having more money due to Bush's middle-class tax cuts, they were able to invest more and build for their future?
And more people climbed out of poverty. We need more bad news like this, mark!
Posted by MarkT | August 29, 2007 4:35 PM
> We need more bad news like this, mark!
What about the part where wages are down so people need to work more hours to make ends meet? You want more news like that?
Posted by gab | August 29, 2007 4:36 PM
Yeah, more people are working, so more jobs are produced, except they REALLY are jobs flipping burgers cuz "Real median earnings of men and women who worked full time declined in 2006. For men, the decline was 1.1%, to $42,300; for women it was 1.2%, to $32,500."
Correlation is not causation - there is nothing in this that says Bush's tax cuts did or did not contribute to the job situation and/or the median wage decline. For all we know, we're still working off Alan Greenspan's easy money policies.
Posted by Ken | August 29, 2007 6:07 PM
"...household income growth was a reflection of more family members taking jobs to make ends meet"
The above quote makes it sound like the housewife, happy to clean and cook, must now go out and toil away at a job like the menfolk or else they'll lose the house. Our society hasn't been the Ozzie and Harriet model for decades.
My wife and I both work, and I know of very few households where the husband and wife don't have a job. Could my family survive on just my income? Yes, but the vacations wouldn't be as nice, our choice of vehicle(s) would be different, and going out to eat several times a month would be curtailed. In other words, we both work NOT to make ends meet, but to live a certain lifestyle.
Posted by docjim505 | August 29, 2007 6:21 PM
gab,
Are you being facetious? If you know where a job "flippin' burgers" pays $42k per year, please let me know!
As for the hand-wringing and whining about "people have to work more to earn more"... Cry me a f***ing river. It's not a question that people have to work 12 hours per day, six days per week in the coal mines just to put food on the table or light their shanties. If people want to work longer hours or two jobs so they can afford the SUVs I see all over the roads, or to send their kids to the private schools I see springing up all over, or pay for their daily double latte at the Starbucks that seem to be on every corner, then that's their decision, NOT a reflection of some kind of money crunch.
Ooh, HERE'S a thought: if Uncle Sugar didn't steal so much out of our paychecks, maybe people wouldn't HAVE to put in all those extra hours or send their children to work in sweatshops to make ends meet.
Sorry: I know that the mere mention of tax cuts is deadly poison to libs (some rich bastard might make a little more money, and we can't have THAT!), but I can't resist suggesting them.
Posted by jeffk | August 29, 2007 7:42 PM
if Uncle Sugar didn't steal so much out of our paychecks, maybe people wouldn't HAVE to put in all those extra hours or send their children to work in sweatshops to make ends meet
Idea: just tax rich people.
Posted by Otter | August 29, 2007 7:47 PM
Idea: just tax rich people.
... you mean the 5% or so who are already paying more than 50% of all taxes?
Posted by MarkT | August 29, 2007 8:29 PM
>As for the hand-wringing and whining about "people
> have to work more to earn more"... Cry me a
> f***ing river.
Let me just confirm: wages are falling, and you're OK with that?
Posted by TyCaptains | August 29, 2007 8:55 PM
I wonder if those wages include inflation. They probably do not include the falling dollar and thus purchasing power - which would therefore mean that the Average Joe is actually much further behind. Not that this is Bush's fault mind you - I really don't give much credit either way to Presidents and their supposedly ability to move the economy (that includes Clinton and the boom under his tenure).
I do think the Poverty statistics are likely too broad since rent/mortgages vary so much from state to state and even locations within a state.
i also wonder about the whole "own a car" statistic because does that mean "working car" or one hopped up on blocks?
More fuel for the fire:
Average Japanese CEO pay compared to Average Japanese Worker: 14X
Average UK CEO pay compared to Average UK Worker: 22x
Average US CEO pay compared to Average US Worker:
400x
Posted by ck | August 29, 2007 10:27 PM
Yeah - You missed a bit on this one Ed - I understand the desire to look on the bright side, but purchasing power is down... and that's a key stat!
Posted by jeffk | August 29, 2007 11:08 PM
Otter: yes. They'll survive.
Posted by jeffk | August 29, 2007 11:13 PM
Otter: yes. They'll survive.
Posted by Scott Malensek | August 30, 2007 5:44 AM
Um, hello....there's juuuuuuust a little something big in there. OHIO
Cleveland was the #1 poorest city in the US (blowing away even New Orleans), but now it's dropped to #4. Making things even more interesting is that Detroit, Dayton, and Cinci are the other 3 poorest cities.
Given Ohio's higher taxes
Given Ohio's unusually high unemployment
Given Ohio's higher than normal inflation
and given the state's budget is a shambles...this would all seem to scream, "HEY! We've got a state in some serious trouble."
But it doesn't. Instead, it screams opportunity for partisanship for the one thing that Ohio has above most other states, is political partisanship on a national scale.
Our state is in collapse, and attention is on New Orleans. If the Federal govt just gave the state of Ohio the same money it gave NYC after 911 ($40bill that disappeared rather than went to rebuilding towers), then Ohio'd be set for the next FOUR YEARS. Instead...our state gets back burnered again, more people will leave, our taxes/unemployment/inflation will continue to rise, and (here's the zinger)
when the state is a battleground state next year...the people who live in Dayton, Cinci, Cleveland, and the rest of Ohio are gonna ask, "What have you done for me lately?" We're gonna ask it of our Democrats who are in Congress running the funding, and we're gonna ask the Presidential candidates why they consistently blow off a state that's been in trouble for 30yrs now?
Posted by Bitter Pill | August 30, 2007 6:29 AM
Ahhh, how the liberals fall into their old moronic rants....
Purchasing power is down? Oh my God, we'll have to actually cook a few meals at home!!!
Wages are 1.1% lower? Oh my God, we'll have to give up a night at the movies!!!
Oh, the horror. The horror.
Libtards....too funny.
Posted by Ryan | August 30, 2007 6:51 AM
Also note: This study does not count welfare payments, benefits and insurance packages and the like as income.
I would be curious to see what adding all of that in would do to the picture.
Posted by Scott Malensek | August 30, 2007 6:55 AM
me too Ryan
;)
Posted by Thomas | August 30, 2007 10:42 PM
My personal opinion is that the fall in real wages is the more important issue here.There is a problem with inflation which is only going to get worse with all the money printing that is going on.The prices of food and energy will keep going up especially with the current craze with corn based ethanol,falling crop yeilds throughout the world and increasingly affluent consumers in china and india.With tougher immigration laws ,cost cutting mexicans might not be able to lower wages all that much.And maybe with elections ,bush will be thrown out and he wont be able to appoint idiots to key positions.Bremer send 12 billion in cash into a war zone most of which cant be accounted for.The money that was wasted in iraq should have been spend on american infrastructure such as roads,bridges and hospitals and not in building stuff for ungrateful arabs.