Link Roundup - 1/20/08

• More good news about Iraq. Complete with pictures. Keywords: progress and impressive.
  
  
• The Bush stimulus program is an awful idea. Romney's also weighed in with his proposed plan. I wish he'd back up his tax cut proposals with spending cut proposals, but I do welcome this difference between his and Bush's:
  

  
  [Romney's plan] centered on several permanent tax cuts…permanently reducing the rate for the lowest income tax bracket to 7.5 percent from 10 percent, retroactive to 2007. He also wants to eliminate Social Security payroll taxes for workers over 65 and eliminate capital gains and dividend taxes on households earning less than $200,000 a year. He also would permanently reduce the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent over two years and allow businesses to depreciate the value of new equipment purchases faster.
  

  
  versus:
  

  
  President George W. Bush earlier on Friday called on Congress to enact a package of temporary tax cuts and other measures estimated to cost up to $150 billion.
  

  
  
  
• Do Democrats really want to return to the Cinton era? I can't even imagine what would happen if papers surfaced documenting the Bush administration had intent to "expose lifestyles, tactics and motives of [opponent] lobbyists" and "track personal information about interest group leaders, such as their home phone numbers, addresses, 'biographies, analysis of credibility in the media, and known relationships with Congresspeople.'"
  
  
• Meanwhile, Grassley's investigation continues to give me the heebeegeebees. I loathe the prosperity gospel movement. I think the prosperity gospel's message is wrong and that its theology is dangerous. But, these people pushing the prosperity gospel are still religious institutions that Congress has no business investigating.
  
  
• Finally, Iran: Still a threat.

The YouTube Democratic Republican Debate

Something to file in the "What? Media Bias? I'm Shocked, Shocked I Tell You!" file...

It appears a good chunk of the questions CNN used for the Republican YouTube Debate were questions asked by Democratic activists.

Michelle Malkin has the details ("Digging out more CNN/YouTube plants: Abortion questioner is declared Edwards supporter (and a slobbering Anderson Cooper fan); Log Cabin Republican questioner is declared Obama supporter; lead toy questioner is a prominent union activist for the Edwards-endorsing United Steelworkers").

When it comes to politics and the media, you just can't make this stuff up!

John Edwards and Hateful Speech

Watching this clip on YouTube I came away agreeing with the substance of what Edward's was saying but almost laughing to myself because the story of Edwards' campaign really doesn't line up very well with the tirade against hateful speech he gave on Hardball.

First there was the Marcotte thing. Then you've got Elizabeth Edwards calling her neighbor a "rabid rabid Republican" and insinuating Bush is a racist.

Not quite a campaign free of hateful speech...

With the perceived hypocrisy in mind, I did what any iMovie-equipped, YouTube-account-holding blogger would do, and here's what we've got:

Credits

• John Edwards Hardball footage - the above mentioned YouTube clip
  
• Elizabeth Edwards Hardball footage - clip on HotAir
  
• Michelle Malkin, reading Amanda Marcotte - Vent clip
  
• Amanda Marcotte's hateful speech - the Pandagon blog
  
• Music - Funkstörung, "Wearing Old Armani"

Reason Assault'd

Having just posted some praise for the premise of the "The Assault on Reason" and then checking some news sites and blogs I regularly read, the irony was just too thick to ignore...

The Assault on Reason:

At first I thought the exhaustive, nonstop coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial was just an unfortunate excess—an unwelcome departure from the normal good sense and judgment of our television news media. Now we know that it was merely an early example of a new pattern of serial obsessions that periodically take over the airwaves for weeks at a time: the Michael Jackson trial and the Robert Blake trial, the Laci Peterson tragedy and the Chandra Levy tragedy, Britney and KFed, Lindsay and Paris and Nicole.

The "news" line up I encountered:

• How about a little context in the Hilton Case? (Q and O)
  
• Breaking: Paris going back to jail; Update: Shep Smith snark video added! Update: More Shep snark! (Hot Air)
  
• Video: Geraldo kinda sorta calls Michelle a Nazi (Hot Air) ... half way through the embedded video of the relevant Bill O'Reilly interview, for no good reason, O'Reilly brings up the Paris thing with Michelle Malkin...
  
• Should Scooter or Paris serve the longer sentence? (Chicago Times) Recommended to me by Google News (!?)
  

At least I'm not the only getting getting sick of this kind of thing....