Politics and other nightmares

Mitch Daniels on the five books that most influenced his political thinking: F.A. Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom," "Milton Friedman's "Free to Choose," Charles Murray's "What it Means to be a Libertarian," Mancur Olson's "The Rise and Decline of Nations" and Virginia Postrel's "The Future and its Enemies."

Every time somebody writes about Gov. Mitch Daniels and the 2012 presidential race, he seems closer to getting in:

He did say no at first, making jokes and scoffing at reporters who asked repeatedly about the possibility. He even told Republicans at their state convention in June that he has "never once looked in a bathroom mirror and seen the president of the United States looking back."

Defense lawyers say they merely represent the client because the client deserves representation and that it should not be presumed therefore that they believe in the client's innocence. GOP Senate candidate Dan Coats makes lobbyists sound like that -- just because we work for the client, that doesn't mean we agree with his agenda -- bue Democrats aren't buying it:

Thank goodness for small blessings:

1960s NASA: We will get to the moon! Today's NASA: We will make Muslims feel good!

All pretense if gone now. All reason. All sanity. All decency.

Last night, as part of a procedural vote on the emergency war supplemental bill, House Democrats attached a document that "deemed as passed" a non-existent $1.12 trillion budget. The execution of the "deeming" document allows Democrats to start spending money for Fiscal Year 2011 without the pesky constraints of a budget.

[. . .]

Bless Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, whose questions to Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan are actually eliciting some of her thoughts on constitutional issues.

The Indiana Department of Labor is taking up the case of a whistleblower who revealed safety issues and unreported overflows at the Michigan City Sanitary District:

The suit, filed in LaPorte Circuit Court on Tuesday, alleges that Ron Meer was unlawfully fired on March 31 by the Sanitary District as retaliation for his complaints to the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Agency.

So, Mr. smartypants libertarian who would like to eliminate a lot of laws, is there a new law you could support? Actually, something to regulate mo-peds would be worth discussing:

In just over a month, three area residents have suffered serious injuries in a wave of mo-ped crashes in Greater Lafayette.

A  fourth suffered minor injuries when her mo-ped was struck by a truck.

Remember the time, oh, about 10 years ago, when Democrats were in favor of kicking out illegal immigrants?