The politics of 2008 are here.

Apparently Al Gore is going after the Saudi vote.

Kerry has the French vote wrapped up from his last time ’round, and now Gerhard Schroeder, who’s ditched his country (he used to be the German chancellor, remember) and is now working for the USSRussians, has endorsed Hillary.

Recently, Hillary criticized this president as being responsible for the worst economy—ever— —in the history of our country. (We know Hillary claimed to have been named for Sir Edmund Hillary before he had climbed Mt. Everest and become famous, so we know Hillary’s idea of history and a timeline is very elastic, but this is a stretch even for us—doesn’t the Depression loom large in 20th century history?)

So it’s fair to start looking at Hillary’s record, since she seems to crave attention right now. (Not Bill’s record; Hillary’s).

How has she done as the Senator from the great state of New York?

Amity Schlaes of Bloomberg analyzes Hillary’s record in New York:

In 2000, Clinton campaigned for targeted relief for the suffering old industrial communities upstate and support for tourism. Her package placed her admirably in the progressive Democratic tradition. But it didn’t have much economic meaning.

Though Clinton talked about her desire to “encourage high- tech entrepreneurs to locate here,” you got the feeling she wouldn’t know a market if it came up and shook her hand in Elmira.

Even as she was campaigning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was dropping. Clinton’s first year in office saw the equities’ crash and the national economy move into recession. New York state’s finances are dependent on Wall Street’s, so the downturn drained state coffers. Recessions do trickle down. Subsidized day care, tourism — the programs Clinton liked best – – were in jeopardy.

At that time, President George W. Bush argued that general tax cuts — as opposed to targeted ones — would be good for the economy. He liked marginal rate cuts to the income tax, and he sought cuts for lower earners. He also fought for cuts in the capital-gains tax rate and taxes on dividends.

Clinton could have gone along. She didn’t. Mechanically, she questioned the premise of the Bush tax cuts: “Will we meet the challenges of our time or will we squander this moment on a budget that puts politics first and people last?”

As E.J. McMahon, an economist at the Manhattan Institute, points out, the tax cuts did turn out to put “people first.” Lower earning households saw great savings: a single parent of two children under age 17 saw an effective 84 percent cut in tax liability. In 2005, McMahon estimates, New Yorkers got to keep $14.6 billion in earnings that they would have had to pay in taxes without the changes in the federal law.

What’s more, the Bush tax cuts were followed by both market and economic comebacks, just as Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin’s capital-gains rate cut was followed by the boom of the late 1990s. Federal tax rate cuts did a lot to offset state and local tax increases. Using something called the State Tax Analysis Modeling Program, a software program that tries out different tax scenarios, McMahon estimates that without the federal cuts New York City would have lost jobs. Instead employment grew.

McMahon figures that for the six-year period of Clinton’s first term New Yorkers will have kept $60 billion that they would have otherwise paid in taxes. Lots of people in New York don’t get a Wall Street bonus. This tax cut was their bonus. Deprive them of it, and you limit the bonuses to Wall Street. You favor the rich in exactly the way that Clinton opposes.

So far, Hillary’s record is not persuasive.

Nor is her message.

Governor Blagojevich unveiled his new budget for the state of Illinois yesterday. It’s long on promises, short on solutions.
Sun Times:

But the budget he outlined would break his campaign promise to devote at least half of all new revenue to education. And he based parts of his budget on revenue ideas that have failed before or, in at least one case, on no specific idea at all.

His proposal would hold income and sales taxes at their current level, upholding a campaign pledge that Blagojevich is likely to make a centerpiece of his re-election bid.

Cigar smokers would pay a higher tax, however, and businesses would lose several tax breaks, giving Republicans ammunition to renew their accusations that Blagojevich is driving jobs out of state….

Blagojevich’s budget calls for state government to spend $55.3 billion in fiscal 2007, an increase of $950 million, or 1.7 percent.

That’s almost exactly the amount of growth in the state’s income and sales tax revenue, which the governor expects to reach $17.852 billion, up 5.6 percent….

Blagojevich says next year’s new revenues will cover routine spending increases — in other words, there will be no deficit.

But that is possible only because of last year’s decision to cut state pension payments, a policy that Republicans decry as irresponsible. Blagojevich’s budget office also could not say Tuesday night whether the governor’s budget would slow down Medicaid payments to hospitals, pharmacies and other health care providers.

Governor Rod Blagojevich—empty state coffers, empty promises….

Empty Suit.

Chicago Tribune:

Hussein’s jail protest called hoax

Court officials say hunger strike claim just another stunt

“According to my information, they had breakfast, while we did not,” lead prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi told the Los Angeles Times. “They eat all the good food.”

Well.

Saddam, what a guy.

Maybe he’s taking a page out of Jesse Jackson’s book.

As I recall, Jesse once went on a hunger strike…..

for 2 or 3 hours. Then one of his buddies did the next shift, and so on.

Apparently it was a “pass the baton” kind of hunger strike, or in this case, pass the bottle:

Three defendants–Hussein, his half brother Barzan Ibrahim and former judicial chief Awad Hamed al-Bandar–said they were on a hunger strike.

Juhi, speaking after the court adjourned, declined to confirm or deny whether any defendants were refusing to eat, but pointed out that Ibrahim brought bottled water with him into the courtroom.

The first edition of the Carnival of GOP Bloggers is up–what are they writing about?

This week includes an entry from Backyard Conservative. Check it out here.

Today an Illinois Senate committee is holding hearings on a law to tighten the definition of eminent domain, which has led to an abuse of power by many municipalities, taking the property of small businesses and homeowners against their will, and without just compensation, robbing them of the American Dream. The Castle Coalition has documented flagrant eminent domain abuse all over the country.

The Sun Times, in an editorial today representing all its 100 newspapers in the Chicago metro area:

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that local governments could take property not just for public uses such as roads, schools and libraries, but also for private development, there was great concern in Illinois and Indiana on the part of property owners. Now efforts are under way in the legislatures of both states to shore up the rights of property owners. The Sun-Times News Group believes these efforts deserve the strongest support.

Though the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in 2002 it was unconstitutional to take private, non-blighted property and give it to another party for private commercial use, the federal court ruling raised new questions about eminent domain. “Illinois statutes do not clearly spell out what municipalities are allowed to do and what alternatives property owners have when the power of eminent domain is brought to bear in any situation,” said state Sen. Susan Garrett, a Democrat from Lake Forest.

She made those comments last month in introducing a badly needed bipartisan bill that would strive to ensure a proper balance between the needs of property owners and the needs of economic development. Currently making its way through the Illinois Senate, her bill would allow the condemnation of private property only in areas proved in a court of law to be blighted. In Indiana, a bill to restrict taking of land for private development has passed the House and is pending in a Senate committee…….

Economic development is not the enemy. In good times and bad, city governments are challenged to find ways of raising revenue. But in any circumstances, should people of modest means be uprooted via this law by those “with disproportionate influence and power in the political process,” as dissenting Justice Sandra Day O’Connor characterized the beneficiaries of Kelo vs. the City of New London? Should the amount of taxes you pay affect your Fifth Amendment rights in such matters?

Ask your state representatives and candidates where they stand. It’s important for your family, your community and for our country.

Via John Tabin in the American Spectator:

Comic-book legend Frank Miller has announced that his next book, Holy Terror, Batman!, is “a piece of propoganda” where Batman goes after al Qaeda:

The reason for this work, Miller said, was “an explosion from my gut reaction of what’s happening now.” He can’t stand entertainers who lack the moxie of their ’40s counterparts who stood up to Hitler. Holy Terror is “a reminder to people who seem to have forgotten who we’re up against…

“These are our folk heroes,” Miller said. “It just seems silly to chase around the Riddler when you’ve got Al Qaeda out there.”

Is Russia regressing back to the USSR, with Putin centralizing power back to Moscow, steadily increasing curbs on free speech and now NGOs? Nikita Krushchev’s great-granddaughter, living in New York, thinks so:

Nina Krushcheva “Why Russia Still Loves Stalin”:
Putin often notes that Russia is developing “its own brand of democracy.” Translation: His modern autocracy has discovered that it no longer needs mass purges like Stalin’s to protect itself from the people. Dislike of freedom makes us his eager backers. How readily we have come to admire his firm hand: Rather than holding him responsible for the horrors of Chechnya, we agree with his “democratic” appointment of leaders for that ill-fated land. We cheer his “unmasking of Western spies,” support his jailing of “dishonest” oligarchs and his promotion of a “dictatorship of order” rather than a government of transparent laws.

Recently, breaking from the united front of the West, Russia invited Hamas to visit without demanding that the group denounce terrorism. The Tribune:

Russia’s invitation last week runs counter to the stand recently taken by the so-called quartet of Mideast peace negotiators, made up of Russia, the U.S., the European Union and the UN. The quartet insisted it would not deal with a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.

Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel’s destruction, has carried out scores of deadly attacks against Israelis in recent years. Hamas leaders said they plan to travel to Moscow this month.

Given Putin’s willingness to host avowed terrorists, we have to question Russia’s sincerity in trying to stop Iran’s nuclear development. And given Russia’s playing energy politics, it looks like Putin is making a bid to reassert Russia as a major power player counter to the interests of the US.
Russia’s ambassador to the US claims they only wanted to give a little help to their friends, (See also my earlier post, Energy Blackmail) but abruptly jacked prices up and cut off energy supplies briefly earlier this year. Here are the “injured” ambassador’s comments (emphasis mine):

Over the last 15 years, the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union were treated differently from other European consumers of our energy: Our pricing policy toward some of them was shaped by our history of interdependence and our hopes for expanded integration with Russia. That policy was inherently transitional — a temporary step to help former “roommates.” Selling them energy at bargain prices indefinitely does not merely defy common sense, it means subsidizing the entire industries of sovereign countries. It also hurts the interests of our energy companies’ shareholders. Now that the Russian government has switched to a universal pricing formula dictated by the market, as evidenced in a recent, widely debated natural gas deal, Russia is being accused of politicizing the energy issue.

How unjust!! The ambassador to the US goes on to remind us that we too are Russia’s energy customers.
And the ruling elite is not treating their people any better, just like the old days, according to the following account. (I was almost run over by a communist bigshot’s ZIL in Moscow in the 70’s, such fond memories.) But some of the freedom of their neighbors has rubbed off, AFP reports (via Drudge):

A column of hundreds of cars has paraded slowly through Moscow as motorists fed up with road chaos caused by traffic privileges for elites massed in a peaceful protest participants said reflected grassroots demand for more basic fairness in Russian life.

The pretext of the unusual demonstration was the sentencing earlier this month of a man, Oleg Shcherbinsky, to four years in prison after he was blamed for the death of the Altai region’s governor in a traffic accident because he was not quick enough to get out of the official’s way.

“The Shcherbinsky case has resonated throughout Russian society,” said Vassily Bochin, a 35-year-old computer programmer, who took part in the demonstration in Moscow, one of many cities due to take part in the nationwide protest that included planned rallies in 21 other cities.

“We want the law to be equal for everyone.”

It’s a crucial time for the future of freedom in Russia. And it impacts us.

Thanks to my friend Walt for the heads up on today’s Trib cartoon. It is certainly up to the Chicago Tribune whether it chooses to reprint the infamous Mohammed cartoons as a matter of free speech. A reasonable case can be made either way.

But in taking a cheap shot at Vice President Cheney in the cartoon they chose to print today, the Trib illustrates Mark Steyn’s point, ” If you’re going to be provocative, it’s best to do it with people who can’t be provoked.”

Yes, let’s discuss the Tribune’s stellar defense of the Bill of Rights.

We already know, as discussed above, they passed on sticking their necks out for the 1st amendment.

As I recall the Tribune wrote a ringing endorsement of Janet Reno’s goons rushing into a home in the dead of night to snatch a terrified Elian Gonzalez and send him back to Cuba. So much for the 4th amendment there. Apparently we can’t go after terrorists in our country, only little boys who want to live here.

As for the 2nd amendment, well, we’d like to keep it, thank you.

Especially with the kind of government the Tribune envisions—defenceless.

From Diane at Respublica:

Eminent Domain: Sunset Hills, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, has become the poster child of how badly eminent domain becomes when things aren’t checked out thoroughly by city officials. The city allowed over 200 private homes to be taken by a developer who planned a new shopping center.

Update: Via the Castle Coalition comes news that a second bank, with branches in St. Louis, has announced “it will not lend money for projects in which local governments use eminent domain to take private property for use by private developers.”

Doubtless it has something to do with the situation in Sunset Hills.

We would like to see other banks come forward to denounce eminent domain abuse as well, like Bank of America, Chase, Wachovia, Citibank, US Bank, and regional banks like LaSalle here in Chicago and local community banks.

If the private sector doesn’t respect private property, who will?!

From the Daily Herald (via Capital Fax blog):

Republican lieutenant governor hopeful Joe Birkett blasted a plan to build miles of tollway sound walls out of brick rather than concrete as yet another example of Gov. Rod Blagojevich helping political friends.

“It’s favors for insiders and this time it’s the bricklayers. And I have nothing against bricklayers … but we shouldn’t be handing out contracts simply to appease contributors,” said Birkett, the DuPage County state’s attorney who’s allied with GOP governor candidate Judy Baar Topinka.

Hand-layed bricks:

According to an internal memo obtained by the Daily Herald, the tollway plans to build 65 percent of its sound walls and retaining walls with brick rather than cheaper pre-cast concrete slabs over the next three years.

It’s a plan that could cost anywhere from $19 million to $35 million in extra toll money, much of which will be spent on workers who will hand-lay the bricks — workers who are members of a union that has endorsed Blagojevich and donated $20,000 to his campaign.

Quite a legacy for Gov. Blagojevich: Hand-layed bricks, a veritable highway monument.