Politics and other nightmares

Steve Forbes pushed the flat tax as a revolution that would unleash the enormous economic power of people able to work and produce under a sane, uncomplicated tax system. He was right. The revolution is here. Just not, you know, here.

Of course, I want to hear what he has to say first, and I won't make any judgments until I actually do hear it. No, I don't mean what John Roberts will say in answer to questions at his Senate confirmation hearings for a Supreme Court seat. I mean what Sen. Evan Bayh says when he introduces Roberts to the Senate committee. Bayh says he's doing this as a courtesy because both of them are Hoosiers (sort of) and to reduce the level of incivility in Washington.

It's dangerous to make radical predictions like this one so early out, but it makes fascinating reading anyway. I suspect Barone is greatly underestimating the power the hard left and hard right have in the Democratic and Republican primaries, for one thing. Two New Yorkers running against each other for the presidency? Don't think so. John McCain. He loves the media too much. My own guess is that the candidates will be two people not even being talked about much right now.

The Chinese learn that democracy can be a tricky business:

How come an imitation of a democratic system ends up selecting the singer who has the least ability to carry a tune?

Really. Just wait till you try to answer the question, "How come an elaborate democratic system participated in by millions of people and costing tens of millions of dollars can only come up with these two candidates for president?"

OK, this is the kind of thing that drives small-government libertarians bonkers, the kind of dishonesty engaged in by politicians and journalists alike that keeps the federal budget so high. "Critical vote looms for Hill Republicans," says the headline in the Washington Post, followed by the subhead "Party to set cuts to entitlement programs" (later elaboration in the story, the first cuts to entitlement spending since 1997). CUTS in SPENDING by the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT?

Another in the continuing series of outrages in post-Kelo America. For the libertarian view of private property, check out this essay, which, by the way, is a very readable articulation of that political philosophy.

I hope I can say that Pat Robertson sometimes talks like an idiot without angering Christian Conservatives, because, well, Pat Robertson sometimes talks like an idiot. A lot of the righty blogs are expressing outrage because the mainstream press is piling on Roberts without bothering to mention that El Presidente Chavez is, indeed, a tinpot dictator whose continued existence above the ground is not in the best interests of the United States. OK, fine, point taken.

See, it's not just me whose trying to get the Condi Rice For President bandwagon going. Not sure who'd I'd want for vice president. Whatever sentiment I had for Jeb Bush was wiped out when he went after Michael Schiavo. Rudy Guiliani is too liberal for my taste. John McCain, the media darling? Please.

Another dispatch from the field by Libertarian correspondent Mike Sylvester:

What a mean man. George Bush won't meet with the NAACP, won't talk with Cindy Sheehan and, now, apparently, will be the first president since Calvin Coolidge who won't go here. He left his heart in Crawford. Or was it Connecticut?